Old Town Scottsdale's Art District: A Self-Guided Tour

Old Town Scottsdale is one of America’s most concentrated art districts, also known as ”the West’s Most Western Town.” It is a frontier farming community that transformed itself into a sophisticated cultural destination while maintaining its distinctive Southwestern character.

Starting in front of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, you’ll walk through the historical center, where Native American trading posts evolved into luxury galleries.

You’ll weave through Main Street’s gallery corridor and Marshall Way’s boutique district. I’ll show you Scottsdale’s Old Adobe Mission and the Little Red Schoolhouse, one of its first buildings in the original Mexican-American barrio.

Step inside Bischoff’s Gallery, housed in a 1952 bank building where the original vaults now protect valuable Navajo rug collections. And explore the site of Sarah Thomas’ 1897 general store – Scottsdale’s first female-owned business – now home to Bischoff’s Shades of the West trading post

Visit King Galleries, recognized as one of the world’s top five destinations for authentic Pueblo Indian pottery

Discover works by Andrew Wyeth, Andy Warhol, and Pablo Picasso at American Fine Art’s 12,000-square-foot showcase

Browse Sissoko Tribal Art Gallery’s extraordinary collection of African artifacts assembled by a former Malian gold trader

Experience Sugar Bowl’s ice cream parlor, immortalized in ”The Family Circus” comic strip

Old Town Scottsdale is one of America’s most concentrated art districts, also known as ”the West’s Most Western Town.” On this walking tour, you’ll discover how a frontier farming community transformed into a sophisticated cultural destination while maintaining its distinctive Southwestern character.

By the end of this two-hour tour, you’ll have explored how Scottsdale became the Southwest’s premier art destination, while still managing to preserve the cowboy culture that earned it legendary status.

By the time the tour ends at the Scottsdale Public Library and Civic Center Library, you’ll have traced the complete evolution of this desert town through its art and architecture.