Cultural Venues (Self Guided), Mesa

Mesa Shakespeare Company is a place where you can watch Shakespeare’s works and classical literary masterpieces on stage. The actors are professionals in their domain and play famous Shakespearean characters, but at the same time make a link with contemporary reality and problems. They perform in such a way that they create a truly theatrical experience. It was organized in 1994 and its aim is to emphasize education and render Shakespeare accessible to the audience.

The Mesa Arts Center is a performing and visual arts complex located in downtown Mesa. At more than 210,000 square feet, the $95 million facility, completed in 2005, is the largest comprehensive arts campus in the state. The Mesa Arts Center encompasses four performance venues, from the intimate 99-seat Farnsworth Studio Theater to the 1,600-seat Ikeda Theater. The center is also home to the Mesa Contemporary Arts, which houses five art galleries with 5,500 square feet of exhibition space. The facility also features 14 unique visual and performing art classroom studios. Multi-use areas throughout the campus provide both indoor and outdoor gathering and presentation spaces.

The architecture of the entire complex is primarily post-modern, with sharp, jagged angles, canted walls, sloping roofs, glass walls, and a reflection of the local vernacular in both colors and materials. The introverted campus is inspired by a geode, and guides pedestrians from the outer concrete walls to a central space of glass, water, and color. The complex was designed by Boora Architects of Portland, Oregon in associations with DWL Architects + Planners, Inc., of Phoenix, Arizona. Martha Schwartz Inc. served as landscape architect for the project.

Arizona Museum of Natural History, or Mesa Southwest Museum, is a natural history museum that exhibits the natural and cultural history of the Southwestern United States. It was founded as a small museum in Mesa City Hall in 1977 with a small collection of Arizona artifacts, in a building designed by Lescher & Mahoney and built in 1937 with WPA funds, that originally housed Mesa City Hall, municipal courts, city library, police and fire departments.

The main museum complex is currently about 74,000 square feet, of which about 46,000 square feet are dedicated to exhibitions containing a collection of about 60,000 objects of natural history, anthropology, history & art, with approximately 10,000 historic photographs. The Museum's exhibitions include a three-story indoor waterfall, a real territorial jail, and a recreation of the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine.

The Southwest Gallery consists of a native peoples’ gallery, with exhibits about Paleoindian big game hunters and gatherers, the first inhabitants of North America, and the Desert Cultures that developed later. The Paleontology Section, which is the study of past life, is the primary emphasis of the Natural History Section of the Arizona Museum of Natural History. The Natural History Section explores, excavates, records, prepares, conserves, and researches the fossil resources in the collection at AzMNH. The Anthropology Section of the Arizona Museum of Natural History conducts research and develops exhibitions on Native American cultures and the archeology of southern Arizona. Archeology has been a major focus of the museum since its inception in 1977.

Symphony of the Southwest gives classical music concerts in Mesa. There you can hear professional quality concerts and discover local young musicians of the region. They try to make their performances interesting for different audiences, young and more adult. It was established in 1956 and since then, Symphony of the Southwest entertains the public with symphonic and chamber music. Their aim is to transmit the beauty and inspiration of music and to make this art a part of people's lives.

Mesa Amphitheater is in a great location in the city. It is a cool, outdoor concert venue with a small park around it. There are different plays as well as modern and classical live concerts that are performed here. The theater boasts good acoustics. There is a beer garden near the theater. The amphitheater is designed in such a way that every seat is 175 feet from the stage; it is a rather large theater that can accommodate 4,200 people. Mesa Symphony Orchestra and Southwest Shakespeare Company sometimes give performances here.