Art On Tap

Such a gem of a Tucson Event! The museum of art is a great venue and it was a crisp evening out.
When the hubs and I entered we received our souvenir beer tasting mug and a fat stack of drink tickets. I do not think it would be possible to use all the tickets and not be carried out by the end of the night! Challenge accepted though!
We sampled a variety of vendors. From small brewers we had never heard of to the big boys like Four Peaks and San Tan, we tried it all! The food trucks were great! I had Korean tofu tacos and C had hot dogs and garlic fries.
A fun night with great friends, too many beer tickets and live music is always a win in my book!

Loved this event! It was a complete experience, with everything from art, beer, food, demonstrations, and music. It was quite cold out, which I was not prepared for so much of it to be outside, but it was a blast nonetheless. There were so many cool breweries there that I had never tried, and it was great to chat with the people running the beer tents. I also may have a new favorite beer — the Ten Fifty-​five brewing had a limited time release of a Red Lime beer, which was totally amazing! The art was really good too, and there was a good mix of sculpture, mosaic, furniture art, oils, and glass art. And I think my favorite was the interactive beer cap station — they had hundreds of beer caps available and you could choose to hang them to make key chains, earrings, or necklaces. Such a great idea, it was a lot of fun :) There was also a good mix of food available at the food trucks, but the wait was pretty crazy. The even ran from 6−10pm and we ordered food from Serial Grillers at 8pm and were told there was a 40 min wait. We paid and wandered around some more, returning about 30 minutes later. When I checked on our order I was told they were all out the stuff to make our food. Sure, they refunded our money, but we waited hungrily for 30 min for nothing. Then we went to the Seis Curbside food truck and were told all they had left was green chili nachos. Not what I was looking for. We ended up getting brats at Mutts, which were delicious and fast! So the food situation was a little bit of a pain, but certainly not enough to ruin the evening :) My husband and I both used about half of our tasting tickets, I think if we had used them all we never would have made it home! The tasting glasses we received were super cute, definitely a plus! Overall it really was an amazing time — my husband and I had a lot of fun, got to try a lot of new beers, and saw some pretty cool art. Would definitely attend this event again — highly recommend!

Art on Tap is seriously the best event I attended in 2013… and I’m still dwelling on the fact that I didn’t think of this genius marriage of art and beer. Bravo! Craft Tucson and the rest of the folks that organized this stellar event really wowed. Now… was it ideal to do an outdoor event in December? Probably not, but I just hosted an outdoor event too… and it went great. It really was chilly out there, but the brews were bountiful, the art and interactive stations were mesmerizing and any event with food trucks puts a smile on my face. I love that this event attracted people that had never been to Tucson Museum of Art, another fabulous organization in Tucson. I love that they had live music (which, I would’ve preferred to see the stage area incorporated to the rest of the event) Mingling with the folks from Dragoon, Ten Fifty-​Five, Thunder Canyon, Sentinel, Barrio and borderlands was a blast. I totally crushing the Leap Pale Ale from Ten Fifty-​Five. And how about the glown glass artist? Seriously, this event was rad. I hope they do it again.

While Art on Tap took place on the one rare day Tucson was really cold (I was a bit underprepared for the outdoor beer tasting), it was still a fantastic event connecting the local breweries with the vibrant art community. Husband and I found our new favorite beer, Red Lime from Ten Fifty-​Five. We also had a local artist from a drawing studio do a quick sketch of the two of us. How great was that? I thought I could only do a couple portrait a la Seine.
The food truck line-​up was pretty impressive. The wait, however, was a little overbearing, as I was not used to being both hungry and cold. But the Tucson Museum of Art, which I had never been to, was such a beautiful place. I was intrigued by the space, the architecture, the exhibitions, and the wonderful gathering of artists and brewers under the same roof.
We ended up having a lot of unused drink tickets. But we spent a good amount of time watching the glass artist blowing and shaping glass in front of our eyes. Even the free shot glass was a piece of art. Totally worth it.

This has been one of the coolest events I’ve ever attended, hands down. Craft beer, beautiful art, and more drink tickets than anyone could go through!