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After Hours Art Talks Series
Join the Goodyear Arts & Culture Commission for a behind the scenes look at the many unique forms of art in our world. During our After Hours Art Talks, we’ll explore art, process, and story through open discussions led by artists and arts leaders. We’ll dive into a variety of topics to discover and celebrate the different ways art takes shape. New topics all year long — come curious!
Lectures will take place through October of on the last Tuesday of the month from 7-8:30 p.m. at Goodyear City Hall, 1900 North Civic Square.
Interested in participating as a lecturer for our series? Please fill out our Art Lecture Form to be considered for future dates.
April 28, 2026
Making Impressions: The Story of a Screen Printer
Quinn Murphy
Quinn Murphy is a Tempe based artist and printmaker. He is also the founder and owner of Hamster Labs, a design and print shop focused on the arts and entertainment industry. Since 2015, his work has consisted of album covers, gig posters, merch design, branding and illustrations. His partnerships with promotional companies Live Nation, Stateside Presents, Psyko Steve Presents and venues including The Van Buren, Crescent Ballroom, Last Exit Live, Rebel Lounge and Celebrity Theatre have given rise to branding of local music festivals as well as countless gig posters and merchandise. His portfolio includes work for national acts like Bishop Briggs, New Found Glory, Rufus Wainwright, Murder by Death, The Get Up Kids, and The Sword. Not to be omitted is his dedication to the local scene. This includes work with local radio stations KUPD, Alt AZ and KWSS, Zia Records, and art for local musicians such as Authority Zero, decker., Miniature Tigers, Paper Foxes, Wyves, and Banana Gun to name a few.
His lecture will include a look into how got started as a screen printer and some stories from along the way. A second part to this lecture will touch on the technical side of screen printing and how one can use it as a medium to make art.
May 26, 2026
Butter, But Make It Art
Fanny Hicks
This lecture explores an unconventional creative path, from childhood dreams of painting and illustration to professional kitchens and, eventually, sculpting a giant edible cow out of butter. Fanny Hicks shares how her formal art training, years of cake decorating, and experience working as a baker unexpectedly converged in a single project that challenged traditional distinctions between fine art and craft.
Through personal storytelling and visual examples, Hicks examines how creative skills migrate across mediums, how making a living can reshape an artistic practice, and why food can be a powerful—and playful—art material. The talk invites audiences to reconsider where art “belongs,” and how curiosity, adaptability, and craftsmanship can lead to surprising creative outcomes—even when butter is involved.
June 30, 2026
Painting the West: A History of American Artists
Jim Turner
Before the golden age of Hollywood westerns, our view of the frontier was shaped not by a silver screen, but by the canvas. This survey of Western artists presents more than two dozen artists. Starting with George Catlin we’ll experience the Grand Canyon paintings of Thomas Moran before moving on to classic Cowboy artists Frederick Remington and Charles Russell. In the early 20th century Kate Cory painted and photographed the Hopi Indians while Maynard Dixon and Georgia O’Keeff e brought a modern look to Western art. In the following decades Hopi muralist Fred Kabotie, Carl Oscar Borg, and Gunnar Widforss worked in the Grand Canyon. The show finishes with cowboy artists Joe Becker and Ed Mell and includes the work of former Navajo Code Talker, Carl Gorman.
P.W. Litchfield Heritage Lecture Series
Learn from diverse cultural speakers provided by the P.W. Litchfield Heritage Center. Lectures are held from 10-11 a.m. in the Goodyear Council Chambers, 1900 North Civic Square.
May 21, 2026
Adventures of a Balladeer
Dolan Ellis