The Ambassador Circle is a component of TMA’s Leadership Circle, the museum’s foremost philanthropic membership group. The Ambassador Circle Lifetime Achievement Award, first presented in 2017, celebrates the career of an artist, patron, or community member, who, among other distinctions, has demonstrated a particular commitment to the advancement of the Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block and Southern Arizona Arts community.
The Ambassador Circle Lifetime Achievement Awardees exemplify a long and impactful career in artistic excellence, exemplary philanthropic leadership, dedication to arts education, and support for and promotion of TMA. A panel composed of Museum staff and the Leadership Circle Committee present nominations and selects awardees. The distinguished honor is awarded every year at the Museum’s Annual Ambassador Circle Dinner, and recipients are presented with a plaque and lifetime membership to the Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block.
Andy Anderson
2019 Ambassador Circle Lifetime Achievement Award
The Tucson Museum of Art is pleased to honor Andy Anderson with the museum’s 2019 Ambassador Circle Lifetime Achievement Award. Launched in 2017, the Ambassador Circle Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates the career of an artist, patron or community member who has demonstrated a passion and commitment to the advancement of Southern Arizona arts and the Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block.
Anderson has provided decades of board participation and extensive pro bono expertise to TMA, helping to improve TMA facilities and promote success. In addition to serving on the board, being a former TMA board president and current trustee emeritus, Anderson has been integral to TMA’s design, renovation and master planning for nearly 50 years. He helped to design the downtown Museum while with William Wilde and Associates in 1970. He later created a master plan and designed renovations in 1983 and 2017. Anderson is also currently designing the Museum’s Kasser Family Wing, expected to open in fall 2019, and the new 22,000 square foot Alice Baker Center for Art Education, slated to open in the summer.
Thomas A. Philabaum
2018 Ambassador Circle Lifetime Achievement Award
A native of Toledo, Ohio, Philabaum earned a master’s degree in fine arts from the University of Arizona in 1983. He began his art career doing paintings and drawings then working with clay. In the mid-1970s, he introduced glass to his repertoire and began having his glass works exhibited throughout the U.S. After earning his degree from the UA, he remained in Tucson and set up his studio and gallery.
Philabaum’s work is part of collections at locations throughout the world including the Tucson Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum, the University of Florence in Florence, Italy, Glasmuseet Frauenau in Germany, Glasmuseum Ebeltoft in Denmark, and the Arizona State University Museum of Art. He also has works in a variety of businesses throughout the U.S. including Tucson International Airport and a Saks Fifth Avenue in Miami. The Tucson Museum of Art has six works by Philabaum in the permanent collection.
Philabaum’s involvement in arts organizations and causes is as extensive as his art career. From 1993 to 1996, he served on the Board of Directors of the Glass Art Society which held conferences throughout the U.S., including Tucson. In 1997, he was elected to the board of trustees of the American Crafts Council. Arizona Gov. Jane Hull presented Philabaum with the Arizona Governor’s Art Award for Artist of the Year in 1998. In May 2000, the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona awarded him the prestigious $25,000 Arizona Arts Award in recognition of his significant contribution to the growth and development of the arts in Arizona. In 2000, he began teaching nationally accredited classes at his studio, giving rise to the Sonoran Art Foundation, which he co-founded. It is now known as the Sonoran Glass School and has its own location in Tucson. Today, Philabaum continues as an adjunct instructor at the University of Arizona and Pima Community College.
Jim Waid
2017 Ambassador Circle Lifetime Achievement Award
Jim Waid is a painter and has lived and worked in Tucson for over 40 years. Waid received a BFA from the University of New Mexico and an MFA from the University of Arizona. Between 1971 and 1980, he taught art at Pima Community College and in 1985, he received a National Endowment for the Visual Arts Fellowship. He was a founding member of Dinnerware Artists Cooperative in Tucson.
Jim Waid’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the country and is in several public collections including the Tucson Museum of Art, the Phoenix Art Museum, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. In 2013, Waid was awarded the Arizona Governor’s Arts Award.
The Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block currently holds 14 works by Jim Waid in their Permanent Art Collection. His painting “Synchroneity,” will be included in the forthcoming reinstallation of museum’s permanent art collection. Additionally, for over 15 years, Jim Waid has served on TMA’s Art Acquisition Committee, helping to shape the museum’s permanent art collection.
About Leadership Circle
Leadership Circle members make an incredible difference in supporting and sustaining Tucson Museum of Art’s permanent collection, exhibitions, and programs. In appreciation for this support, Leadership Circle members enjoy exclusive programming, invitations to meet prominent guests, and VIP service.
For more information or to JOIN Leadership Circle, contact Andrea Dillenburg, Chief Development Officer, at Adillenburg@tucsonmuseumofart.org (520) 616-2694.