The Best Arts & Entertainment in Yuma

When the Territorial Prison closed in 1909 it became a museum, which tells you something about how Yuma treats its past: preserve it, charge admission, and let the storytelling do the work. The arts scene here serves snowbirds hunting watercolor workshops and wine tastings between November and March, year-round families whose kids need arcades and escape rooms when playing outside becomes a health risk, and the steady audience that keeps a movie theater running in a town this far from everywhere else. It's galleries showing desert landscapes, live music venues that survive summer by going dark, and psychics reading cards for clients from both sides of the border.