Mac Schweitzer Rides On: The Artist and Her Legacy with Ann Lane Hedlund, PhD

Join author, and retired University of Arizona Professor, Ann Lane Hedlund, as she reflects on the legacy left by the artist Mac Schweitzer. Mac Schweitzer was born Mary Alice Cox near Cleveland, Ohio and was enamored by horses, cowboy culture, and art from an early age. Following her marriage to fellow Cleveland School of Art student John Schweitzer, she adopted her maiden name’s initials (M.A.C.) as her artistic moniker. Mac, her husband, and son moved to Tucson in 1946 where she became a free-wheeling Arizona artist traveling the state across the Sonoran Desert, Colorado Plateau, Navajo and Hopi reservations and outlying areas. She created a compelling body of work in the American Southwest with subjects ranging from naturalistic studies of desert animals, birds, and plants to expressive Native American family scenes, to stylized works and moody abstractions, and moving landscapes. The exhibit of Mac Schweitzer’s art showcases some of the almost 500 items, including paintings, sketches, and prints that were donated by Ann Hedlund to the museum in memory of her late husband and Mac’s son, Kit Schweitzer. If you have or have not seen Mac’s art you will want to take this opportunity to learn more about an extraordinary artist and see her art before the exhibit closes on September 28, 2026.

 Ann Lane Hedlund’s book Mac Schweitzer: A Southwest Maverick and Her Art will be available for purchase with a book signing following the program.

 Ann Lane Hedlund, PhD, is a cultural anthropologist, retired professor of anthropology from the University of Arizona, and retired curator of ethnology, Arizona State Museum.