Bustin’ Out Local Treasures: Affordable Art for All at the Tucson Gallery

In this exciting episode of Life Along the Streetcar, host Tom Heath sits down with Tony Ray Baker, a Tucson real estate expert and co-owner of the Tucson Gallery, for an inspiring conversation about art, accessibility, and community. As Tony Ray shares his passion for affordable art, we learn how Tucson Gallery has become a cornerstone for local artists, offering them a platform to thrive while keeping art accessible to everyone. This episode is also an invitation to join the Tucson Gallery’s upcoming Affordable Art Bustin’ Out to the Open Sale on November 16th, where the community can discover local talent, connect with artists, and take home unique Tucson-inspired pieces. Tune in and dive into the story behind the gallery and its mission.

Affordable Art Bustin’ Out to the Open Sale

The Tucson Gallery, co-founded by Tony Ray Baker, is celebrating the Affordable Art Bustin’ Out to the Open Sale on November 16th from 11 AM to 6 PM. This special event brings Tucson’s creative community together on the gallery’s patio, offering art lovers a unique, open-air experience where over 35 talented artists will be showcasing works beyond what’s typically on display. It’s a chance to browse a wide range of pieces, from original artwork to prints, postcards, and even small collectible items—all priced with accessibility in mind.

The gallery’s outdoor setting for this sale is designed to feel like a mini art fair, with booths, tents, and vendors filling the patio. In addition to meeting local artists and exploring their work, attendees can enjoy delicious Italian offerings from Jaime’s Pizza Kitchen, paint wind chimes with Ben’s Bells, Sip and Paint with Camila, and mingle in a lively, family-friendly atmosphere. This event is a celebration of Tucson’s creativity and community spirit, making it an ideal spot to find that perfect holiday gift or a unique piece to bring the warmth of Tucson into your home.

The Origins and Purpose of Tucson Gallery

Founded in partnership with local artists and art lovers, Tucson Gallery has a vision: to create a sustainable space for artists to thrive without the financial pressures that often limit creative expression. Tony Ray Baker, Darren Jones and Tom Heath established the gallery in December 2022, driven by a desire to bring Tucson’s incredible creative talent to the forefront. As Tony Ray explains in this episode, he and his co-founders wanted to create a model that allows artists to earn consistent income, not just from one-time sales of originals but through reproductions that make art more affordable and accessible.

The gallery features a diverse lineup of artists, each with unique styles and perspectives, and provides a platform for artists who may be selling their work publicly for the first time. By emphasizing community and collaboration, Tucson Gallery has become a supportive, nurturing environment where artists can connect with audiences and build their careers. The gallery’s mission to support local talent extends beyond walls, giving artists a tangible way to share their work and inspire others.

Accessibility and Inclusivity in Art

A key theme of the Tucson Gallery is accessibility. Tony Ray’s own childhood experience with art led him to want to make it affordable and open to all, regardless of budget. In this episode, Tony Ray shares his memories of sneaking into art galleries as a child to photograph pieces he loved because he couldn’t afford to buy them. Today, he has turned that experience into a passion for inclusivity, ensuring that the Tucson Gallery offers art at multiple price points so that everyone can experience the joy of owning a piece of art.

This focus on inclusivity goes beyond affordability. The Tucson Gallery welcomes visitors to engage with the art in ways that feel comfortable, even encouraging them to take photos (for personal use, of course) and spend time admiring the displays without any pressure to buy. This open, welcoming approach has made the gallery a beloved space where everyone—from seasoned collectors to those just discovering their love of art—can come together, connect, and celebrate the diverse artistic voices of Tucson.

Celebrate Local Art with Us!

Whether you’re a long-time art lover or new to Tucson’s vibrant art scene, the Tucson Gallery’s Affordable Art Bustin’ Out to the Open Sale is a must-attend event. It’s a day to immerse yourself in local creativity, support Tucson artists, and find art that speaks to your heart and budget. Through this episode, we’re thrilled to highlight Tony Ray Baker’s inspiring vision and the gallery’s mission to make art accessible to all.

Visit the Tucson Gallery at The Proper Shops, 300 E. Congress St., Suite 106, and learn more at TheTucsonGallery.com. And if you have an incredible story about Tucson, reach out to Tom Heath—we’d love to share it with the community!

Tom Heath
Good morning. It’s a beautiful Sunday in the old Pueblo. And you’re listening to Katy. Tucson. Thank you for spending part of your brunch hour with us on your downtown Tucson community. Sponsored, all volunteer powered rock and roll radio station. On this week’s show, we’re going to sit down with Tony Ray Baker, a distinguished real estate agent here in Tucson and co-owner of the Tucson Gallery.

Tom Heath
We’re going to explore his inspiring story behind his involvement with the gallery and its significance to both him and our community. Plus, we’re going to have an exclusive look at an exciting event they’re hosting later on this month. Today is November 3rd, 2024. My name is Tom Heath and you’re listening to Life Along the Streetcar. Each and every Sunday, our focus is on social, cultural and economic impacts in Tucson’s urban core, and we shed light on hidden gems everyone should know about.

Tom Heath
From a mountain to the University of Arizona and all stops in between. You get the inside track right here on 99.1 FM streaming on downtown radio.org. Also available on your iPhone or Android using our very own Downtown Radio Tucson app. If you want to interact with us on the show, we recommend you do that through social media. Facebook and Instagram are the best ways to do that.

Tom Heath
And of course, if you want information on our show or book past episodes to contact us, then we recommend you head over to our website, which is life along the Street. Car dawg. And of course, we hope you listen to our podcast. We’ve got that out there and places like iHeart radio, iTunes, Spotify. And you can even tell your smart speaker to play the Life Along the Street Car podcast.

Tom Heath
And yeah, sometimes it pops up. Well, today is the All Souls procession. It’s time for us to honor those who have passed on, remembering their impact in our lives and celebrating their, their time with us. The roots. It’s always on the West Side. It’s going to start today at 4 p.m., and you can, gather at, grind, Grundy Avenue and Speedway Boulevard in that area.

Tom Heath
The procession starts at six. Take us, south on, on, ground down towards the Mercato area. Lot of traffic congestion. There’s definitely some parking issues. Just be aware that you’re not blocking, a driveway or a path of the procession. There’s details on the All Souls processions.org website if you want to get the exact map, but it’s going to start at, the, the the gathering starts at four.

Tom Heath
The, the walk will begin at 6 p.m.. And the festivities, the celebrations, the burning of the urn will be near the NSA annex. In the Mercato district, just west of the, freeway there. Well, our guest today, it’s someone I have known for years. He’s a he’s a good friend. And he is the co-owner of the Tucson Gallery.

Tom Heath
And and I just need to preface this because the gallery is a sport, a supporter of the podcast or supporter of the station, and I am a co-owner as well of the gallery. So I’m coming at this from a different, perspective than a lot of my, my interviews. But it’s a story I thought was important to get out because the gallery is doing good work here in Tucson, so we’ll touch upon that in the interview.

Tom Heath
But I’ll let Tony Ray Baker, really kind of drive the, the story and the conversation behind the Tucson gallery had a chance to sit down with him and our brand new show, Source Studios, just, a few days ago and, talk about his involvement and, an upcoming event with the Tucson Gallery. Well, excited for another episode, of course, of life long street car, because I get to interview with my good friend Tony Ray Baker, who, about two and a half years ago said, yes, I will open a gallery with you.

Tom Heath
There you go. He’s he’s just laughing. He’s like, I think that’s a maniacal laugh. He’s like, I, I our other partner, Darren could not be here. And yes, I am kind of doing a weird interview because it’s about something that I’m involved with. But I will be I will be the host and Tony Ray will be representing the gallery.

Tom Heath
That’s been a big part of, of my life for the last few years and is supporter of the radio station in the show, and it’s coming up on a two year anniversary and a big event. So we thought you know what? It’s time we we highlight. So Mister Tony Ray Baker, welcome to life on street car.

Tony Ray Baker
Thank you. It’s been a long time I’ve been waiting.

Tom Heath
Seven years time. Seven years and years.

Tony Ray Baker
I might not even in the book.

Tom Heath
I, I, I’ve asked numerous times, but you are busy with something else. I’ve got too much.

Tony Ray Baker
Going on, buddy.

Tom Heath
Well, if if, for those very few people that don’t know you and maybe a brief history outside of the gallery, you’re involved in real estate or something, or is, I.

Tony Ray Baker
Just, I’m celebrating my 30 year anniversary this year. That’s pretty big in real estate full time. So I’m with Remax, and, Yeah, I, partners with you and another adventure called Tucson Trolley Tours. And then, Darren and I also own Airbnbs and rentals and all kinds of fun stuff because we’re a board.

Tom Heath
So. So two and a half years ago when, when this idea of the gallery came up, we knowing all the things that you’re doing, what on earth possessed you to say? Yes, I would like to be a part of that.

Tony Ray Baker
At first I just thought you are off your rocker. Honestly, I know that I was pretty convinced you were, having a, like, a midlife crisis or something, and, and we laughed a lot about it for a day or two. If I remember right. Not with you, but about about you. And, one.

Tom Heath
More laughing work you were laughing.

Tony Ray Baker
At during. And I were like, what is wrong with him? Why would he even ask us this question? We I think you were like, we need to do something with the retail space. And I remember thinking, I promised I would never go back. You know, that was my first life. That was retail and merchandizing and all that fun stuff.

Tony Ray Baker
So, but as we thought about the art gallery, we thought about the idea, one of the cool things that keep came up, that kept coming up was all the artists friends that we have and how much, Darren and I both. We really love art, and we’ve collected art all over the world, and and, so that made sense.

Tony Ray Baker
There was a connection there. And then the connection that we could create something different to help artists make money constantly versus just selling one original and then having to wait for the next one to sell and, you know, creating more art from one piece and making that, something that they could just get their hands on and wrap around quickly and, we’ll do all the work, but they all we have to get is you be the creative and we’ll do the, the left brain stuff, which lets you know you want to keep artists in their right mind.

Tony Ray Baker
You know, literally and figuratively. They need to be the creators. That’s what they’re great at, right? Yeah. So I think when we wrapped our brains around that whole thing, that got me excited, especially being a nerd, I like anything that’s a challenge. And that kind of world so that I got that. But then there’s childhood stuff that came up for me.

Tom Heath
Oh, wait a minute. Hold on. We’ll have to get to the childhood stuff here in a moment. More I will say that when when this concept of the gallery came up first was sort of, in my mind, was different than it became, and it became what it is now, in large part because of the influence of yours and Darren’s.

Tom Heath
And, I didn’t realize at the time I knew you were art collectors, but I realized you had so many local artists in your Airbnb. Yeah, and we’re looking for artists, and you’re like, oh, well, this one’s in that house. We’ve got this one at that house. And yeah, like how we sort of found a lot of our first artists were they were in your gallery.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah. We so when we opened our first Airbnb, we were, we didn’t want to be kitschy. We didn’t want to be Tucson, anything like had been done before. So our goal was to be art eclectic and be very local, Tucson centric. And so we went shopping, which I hate shopping and we this is a big deal for me to go, but we spent days on the streets, literally on the streets, going to street fairs and, and meeting artists and finding stuff that made sense.

Tony Ray Baker
And so we ended up with a beautiful collection at the first, the Bella Vista Airbnb and, so we met some really cool people, and we had a party there, a grand opening at that Airbnb, and invited all those artists to the party and all the friends, and I.

Tom Heath
Remember that. I mean, I don’t think I was invited, but I remember I remember seeing pictures because I think it was Julie Bonner or something had posted something. She had her work was there. Yeah.

Tony Ray Baker
You know. Yeah, we had this little we wanted them to see their work hanging up. And what would I come of it? Cool. That’s how it kind of all got connected to artists for. Okay. Yeah. And some were clients. Some of those artists had we had helped buy and sell or both, you know. So yeah.

Tom Heath
Okay. Yeah. Well the gallery, it opened in October or December of 2022. Sorry. Two about we’re going on two years, going on 22 or going on a two year anniversary.

Tony Ray Baker
Yes.

Tom Heath
And, yeah, it’s, it’s not on cruise control. It takes a little bit of effort to keep it going, I think.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah. It’s close. Yeah. But there’s a lot of, It’s on. It’s close. It’s like 90% cruise control. I think any good business person, though, does not ever let anything go on autopilot completely. Because if you take your hands off the wheel, you’re missing stuff. And we see that in customer service and company after company nowadays. So I think we’re doing well by having our fingers on that a little bit.

Tom Heath
That is Tony Ray Baker. He is the co-owner of the Tucson Gallery. He’s involved with other projects here in Tucson, which we’ll probably talk about on future shows. But we wanted to feature the gallery in an upcoming event they have here. On November 16th, we’ll be back to the second half of that interview. Talk a little bit more at the gallery.

Tom Heath
In the event in just a few minutes. But first, I want to remind you that you’re listening to The Life Along the Street car in downtown radio 99.1 FM and streaming on downtown radio.org.

James Portis
This podcast is sponsored by Tom Heath and the team at Nova Home Loans. If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, continue listening or head over to left on the Street Khou.com for current events and information on what to do while visiting Tucson. Tom Heath and MLS number 182420 Nova and MLS number 3087, UK number 0902429. Equal Housing Opportunity.

Tom Heath
If you’re just joining us, our featured today is the Tucson Gallery. I, have Tony Ray Baker, who is one of the co-founders. And for full disclosure, just a reminder, this is a project in which I also am a co-owner. So I’m I’m definitely approaching this as the interviewee, interviewer of of, of a guest, however, you know, just know that that that, for full disclosure, I do have ownership of the gallery as well.

Tom Heath
One of the things that was very important and you touched upon this, was this idea, and they must have come out of your brain. But it was this idea of of, of a really robust website that allows original artwork to be reproduced in a lot of different formats, making it really accessible.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah, I was yeah, that’s back to my childhood. How was your childhood? Yeah, because I couldn’t afford art when I was a child. So I used to sneak into art galleries, with a pocket camera. And back then it was film. Some dating myself, but there was no digital and the docents would look at me as if I didn’t belong there.

Tony Ray Baker
I always felt bad being in the art gallery, but I wanted to see the art, so I didn’t like anything about art galleries. As a kid. But I was smart enough to know that when the phone rang, I had an opportunity to take pictures of the art so I would snag pictures and get out of the art gallery.

Tom Heath
Did you have your friends calling the gallery so they would they would go, yes, sir.

Tony Ray Baker
That’s smart that I should have. Now that you telling me that that’s a first thought right now. But I used to take the pictures. Then I, would go to the darkroom at Amphi High School, and I would. And in my, freshman year at Amphi, I was in the photography, and I would go in the darkroom and process that film, and then I would go to, the little yard sales around the neighborhood, and I’d pick up old frames, and then I would put that artwork in those frames.

Tony Ray Baker
That was my art. And so I got, you know, I got to be part of art, and I, I just it was really important to me. As we were going through this process, opening the Tucson Gallery was, how do kids get the art? And how does somebody who can’t afford art? How does somebody get something? How do they get involved in it in any way, even if it’s just come into the gallery and sit there at our lovely giant bar and buy a soda, or not buy a soda?

Tom Heath
I was going to say.

Tony Ray Baker
Thank you, but if.

Tom Heath
You’re a kid, come under the.

Tony Ray Baker
Bus, man. Yeah, come to the bar. But given anybody opportunity to sit there and enjoy the beauty of what we have in there, because it is it’s quite a happy experience in that space.

Tom Heath
People will come in and ask if it is okay to take pictures. And I’m like, well, if I get distracted by a phone call. Yes. And then we always tell you, of course, take take pictures. Just use it for your use, not commercial use. Use it for your use. And and I think accessibility was, as we were thinking through that mission and vision, accessibility at all levels was important, right.

Tom Heath
And didn’t want to be priced out. If I can’t afford $3,000 for an original, I can maybe afford $4 for a postcard of that or that print.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah, or a sticker or, or a reproduction of it. Maybe you want that reproduction on a 24 by 36 canvas for 3 or 400 bucks. That’s something more affordable for a lot of people. And they still get a beautiful piece of art, instead of buying that original. And maybe the original is not available, so you can’t get the original because people like me snag them sometimes.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah. So I think it’s just it’s open to everyone. And that’s really what I think. We’ve done a good best with. That gallery is just leaving that open to everybody and inviting everybody in to enjoy.

Tom Heath
The one thing that is, is interesting is the amount of, I think it’s now 35 artists maybe, that are in that gallery.

Tony Ray Baker
I think we are 34, 35.

Tom Heath
And if you haven’t visited the gallery and you stopped by, you’re going to be surprised at how small of a space it really is, you know? Yeah, it’s pretty well packed. But that led to this event is coming up in a couple of weeks on the patio. The the the busted out sale.

Tony Ray Baker
Yes. Because we are busting out. Well, we are the art is.

Tom Heath
We’ve got 35 artists that have a so much more work to display.

Tony Ray Baker
Right. So yeah. So we’re going to pull, their inventory and our back inventory and, make a mini craft kind of looking fair out in the back with tents and all that. Artists can, come, from our gallery and display all that extra stuff. We don’t have room to hang on the wall, which will give an opportunity to a lot of people to see stuff that we haven’t had available.

Tony Ray Baker
Also, to get their hands on it before the holidays or before someone else does. So yeah, it’s going to be great.

Tom Heath
But I think of of artists like, UK Ahoy, who we’ve got beautiful work of hers in the gallery. She does the metal sculptures if you haven’t seen it, but she’s got some large pieces. We just don’t have.

Tony Ray Baker
Room for her. Yeah, I’m. That’s how we met her. Was an intent on the street. We just fell in love with, one of her big ravens, and it, And as a matter of fact, we had our art gallery was full at the time. And I remember walking up to her and I said, I can’t fit you in the gallery, but I have air space.

Tony Ray Baker
So if you could hang those birds in that art gallery, we can get you in our gallery. Yeah, that’s how that relationship started.

Tom Heath
And we now have large metal birds flying from the rafters.

Tony Ray Baker
Flying from the rafters.

Tom Heath
So November 16th, it’s, you’re going to for many, many details. It’s, it’s it’s obviously it’s a Saturday. It’s 11 to 5. 11 to.

Tony Ray Baker
Six. Yeah. It’s 11 to

Tom Heath
It’s 11 six until the sun goes down. We can’t see.

Tony Ray Baker
Most of the stuff will happen between 12 and 5. Okay. So I’d be there early. Hi. Scratch Pizza Kitchen, which is great Italian food. They’ll be, selling food out in that courtyard. Ben’s bells will be there, and you can come play and, paint some of the bell parts. I think it’s the wind chime parts.

Tony Ray Baker
Okay. I don’t quote me on that.

Tom Heath
It’s it’s that quote you you’re being recorded. Audio and video. I don’t have to quote.

Tony Ray Baker
You all the time.

Tom Heath
I’ll just replay the video already.

Tony Ray Baker
You know, we’re trying to we also want to make it a very fun, experience. So there’ll be tents, with artists, of course, which we discussed, and then Ben’s bells and then Jamie’s, and then there’ll be a bar out there. And then we have the proper shops, which is really awesome because you can go shopping at all the little local shops next to us in the inside, the proper shops.

Tony Ray Baker
And, yes, it’s going to be really fun.

Tom Heath
And I know there was some question and I’ll know if you were able to secure about, Camila, the, the Ibarra. She’s going to be doing her essay.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. There’s two, two different times. So if you go to the Tucson gallery.com website and look at the events calendar, you can sign up to actually, learn to paint with Camila. There’s a mural artist and you’ll go home with your own painting, which is pretty awesome. And, Camila is amazing, too. She’s a great teacher.

Tony Ray Baker
I’ve seen her in action.

Tom Heath
All right. Sounds like a lot of, a lot of different festivities, and I probably should know more about it, so I’m glad. I’m glad you’re filling me to a flier. Thank you.

Tony Ray Baker
I appreciate that you should go to the Tucson gallery.com sometime. Check it out on all kinds of cool stuff on the events page. And, Tom, you should sign up for our newsletter at the Tucson gallery.com.

Tom Heath
Well, I don’t want to get spam this.

Tony Ray Baker
Once a month time. It’s not spam. We’re good.

Tom Heath
Since the gallery open, has there been any, sort of any change of expectations on your part, anything that you’re like, wow, I didn’t really think about this two and a half years ago, or just moments that you’re like, wow, this is great, or this is is horrible.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah. I thought I would hate retail again. I and so that’s interesting that the horrible side and I have not I’ve, I really got, I’ve gotten into the merchandizing and the just look I love being around the art, but I think one of the biggest, most audacious things that’s happened for me personally is the rawness of some of the folks that come in, and I never knew how art could touch people.

Tony Ray Baker
I’ve had some real tear jerking moments with people who have stood in front of me and told me some stories, and about the art and how it had inspired them or changed them and just became real, raw and vulnerable with me in the moment. And I think that’s amazing to see that art can do that to you. Yeah, it’s been really beautiful and we’re there on Saturday nights.

Tony Ray Baker
Personally, I hang out there Saturday night. So what’s one of the cool things is, is, is having a space where I’m, I stay put, which is abnormal and everybody comes through. So I’m seeing far more friends and clients, than I ever have because they know I’m in that building. So that’s pretty cool to be in a fun space where people can stop in and say hi before dinner or after.

Tony Ray Baker
And yes, there’s some really beautiful stuff that’s come from there.

Tom Heath
One of the things that I was so if it surprised me, but it it, I guess it was a little, a little eye opening. Some of these artists that create such beautiful work have never actually sold anything that they’re they’re just. Yeah, they create. And then you give them an opportunity. They did I think it was Andrea Rodriguez.

Tom Heath
Like, I don’t know if anyone will show up and buy my stuff.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah, yeah. Isn’t she amazing. And it just see and it’s her oil paintings are stunning. So yeah you’re right.

Tom Heath
And she was doing like Parks and Rec. Like she was just that. That was her studio. She wasn’t. And and she now is selling.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah.

Tom Heath
And she’s a machine. She’s now like she’s really doing well. That’s awesome.

Tony Ray Baker
I know it’s it’s the artists. Amaze me. We just had another piece from we had that piece from Courtney come in and I. It’s amazing. I can’t believe it’s not a photograph. Oh, yeah. That it’s an a that’s really an acrylic. That that kind of stuff just blows my mind. What we see coming in there is really high quality stuff.

Tom Heath
And we, we, I was talking with her because we do the meet the artist events and, talk about those, but I was talking with her. I didn’t realize that she hasn’t really sold much work, and the original she brought in had been hanging on her wall, and she showed me this picture, and she said, this entire wall.

Tom Heath
And I was, like, empty. And I’m like, good. Now it’s time to recreate right now, go back to painting again.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah, go back to painting.

Tom Heath
So we got a couple minutes left. So but one of the things I do want to touch on is the meet the artist events that, the, the gallery hosts periodically.

Tony Ray Baker
Yep. Those are awesome. We, encourage each artist to have as many of those events as they want, where people can come in and hang out with the artist. That was, also inspired by a trip. This is a trip to, I think we were in Prague. Maybe it was, Italy. I’m not. Remember, but we, as we were listening to stories about Dali and, Picasso and and how they would hang out in bars and people would come and listen in and get as close as they could to them.

Tony Ray Baker
And how people were so enthralled with learning about the art from those two as they were, you know, hanging out together. And it kind of inspired that idea of let’s get people hanging out with artists.

Tom Heath
It’s interesting to see now, now that you’re on the on the on the recording side, it’s Prague and Italy, but when they start, it was because you were knocking over little kids to get Ignazio autograph at soccer.

Tony Ray Baker
Okay, that was secondary. That’s what I did do that. But that’s why I didn’t harm anybody. I just I just wanted to meet Ignacio really bad, and I.

Tom Heath
I don’t know if some of these artists know how how much, you know, their art touches lives, but how much people do enjoy meeting with them. It’s really, really fun to watch them connect.

Tony Ray Baker
Oh, and that’s what we another thing we discovered in the gallery was we had to tell all those stories, tell the story of the artist, and we have to tell the story of the piece, because that is what connects us as humans. We’ve been connected by stories since the dawn of time, even 13 billion years ago. They’re now discovering storytelling on stones way beyond, way beyond recorded history.

Tony Ray Baker
They’re finding stuff where storytelling was the way we communicated, and we still do. We all love a good story or all these movie companies want to do so well. So yeah.

Tom Heath
But Tony Baker, Tucson Gallery, The Tucson Galaxy, November 16th is the busting out sale. Yep. And meet the artists and upcoming events through the, the website and I do I have sign up for the newsletter. Jesse.

Tony Ray Baker
Oh. Did you.

Tom Heath
I am getting the newsletter.

Tony Ray Baker
Thank you. Because we. James and I do a lot of work on that. Well, James does that.

Tom Heath
I appreciate your time.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah, thanks for having me.

Tom Heath
That was Tony Ray Baker, local real estate agent and co-owner of the Tucson Gallery, among many other projects, which I think we’ll probably end up talking about here in future shows as well. November 16th, the, busting out event, talking about, the first annual event for the Tucson Gallery hosting, some of the artist work on the patio.

Tom Heath
Should be, a fun time. I’m, I’m I’m looking forward to it. Well, my name is Tom Heath. You are listening to Lifelong Streetcar in downtown radio 99.1 FM, and we’re streaming on Downtown Radio.

James Portis
Dot org support for downtown radio is provided by the Tucson Gallery, located in downtown Tucson. Instead of the proper shops at Bennett East Condo Street, the Tucson Gallery offers original work, reproductions, and merchandise from Tucson artists like Joe Pejic, Jessica Gonzalez, Ignacio Garcia, and many more. For information about other artists, including when they open up at the gallery, head to the Tucson gallery.com or find them on Instagram and Facebook as Tucson Gallery.

Tom Heath
Well, don’t go bye bye yet. You want to stay tuned for words and work with Ted Brazil. He interviews writers and others from the labor movement. He is coming up in just a few minutes here at the bottom of the hour, and then at noon we’re back with Ty Logan, Heavy Mental. And at 1:00, the Riv kicks us back into the music.

Tom Heath
And then Monday morning, paleo Dave, your drive time. Morning, deejay. Good heavens. He’s approaching, like, episode number, like 10 million or something. He’s just cranking it out. And as a reminder, all of these deejays, show hosts are board members, are technical support. Everybody are volunteers. What that means is, we we love what we do, and we want to share that with the world.

Tom Heath
And when you donate money to our station and that money goes towards programing equipment, rent, things like that, that are not only necessary for running the station, but help us improve the quality of the experience that you have. So we recommend you head over to the, down at Town radio.org, check it out the upcoming shows, maybe pick out a DJ or a show that you’ve not listened to and, spend a little time getting to know them.

Tom Heath
I think you’ll find that they they all do great. And this music that I don’t think I would have listened to if it wasn’t noted. I know there’s music that I would have listened to if was for Downtown Radio, and, I appreciate that they put that out there for the world. And while you’re there, hit that donate button.

Tom Heath
Keep us, keep us moving and grooving and moving forward. Well, if you have something for our show, we recommend you hit us up on Instagram, Facebook, tag us and something. Share something with us, let us know what we’re doing well or things we should be doing or stories we should be covering. But we need you to, to, keep us on track.

Tom Heath
And and if you’re doing something out there, tag us on that, too, because we want to collaborate with you and share to the world the things that you have going on. Well, our music is brought to, And the opening by Ryan Hood, our production specialist is James Portis. We have our brand new production assistant, Amanda mulattos.

Tom Heath
My name is Tom Heath. I am your host and producer, and we’re going to leave you the music today from the diners. It’s a 2023 album called Domino, and it’s called Painted Pictures. And I hope you have a great week and tune in next Sunday for more life along the streetcar.