Phoenix got an early look at its 2027 NBA All-Star runway when the NBA Foundation brought its first Sports & Arts Symposium and Gallery Exhibition to the city on Sept. 9-10, placing athletes, artists and community leaders in the same conversation ahead of the league’s return.
NBA Foundation brings sports-and-art crossover to Phoenix
The two-day program was staged with the Arizona State University Art Museum and centered on a new collaboration between NHL defenseman Jacob Trouba and artist William Wegman. Trouba’s work starts with the gear and motion of hockey, using body prints to turn the game’s contact and movement into visual pieces. Wegman responded to those works in his own style, creating a project built on the contrast between an active player’s process and an established artist’s perspective.
Trouba and Wegman discussed the experiment in a public session, tracing the different routes that brought them into the same project. The event then closed with a reception for Cross Check: Jacob Trouba and William Wegman at the ASU Art Museum, where attendees viewed the collaborative pieces.
The symposium’s broader program moved through the overlap of sport, culture and opportunity. NBA Foundation Executive Director Ruth Jurgensen joined NHL Senior Executive Vice President Kim Davis, while NBA figures Elliot Perry and CJ Miles brought perspectives shaped by collecting, photography and careers around the game. Art collector and philanthropist Jessica Nowitzki and author and professor Mitchell S. Jackson were also part of the discussions.
Sessions examined art collecting and philanthropy, the creator economy, routes into creative work, and the place art holds in sports culture. Cross Check will stay open at the ASU Art Museum through January 2027.
SEO Title: NBA Foundation Opens Sports and Arts Symposium in Phoenix
SEO Description: The NBA Foundation’s first Sports & Arts Symposium in Phoenix featured Jacob Trouba and William Wegman’s Cross Check exhibition, on view through January 2027.
