Where Tucson’s classic signs live on

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TUCSON, Arizona (KGUN) – We see them glow at night and evolve over time, but what happens after Tucson’s iconic signs or neon lights are turned off?

Many of them end up in the Ignite Sign Art Museum.

Owners Jude and Monica Cook also own Cook & Company Signmakers, a shop that has been making signs in Tucson since the 1980s. Jude was previously a sign maker and business owner in Iowa.

“They’re just so cool,” he said over the signs. “It’s art. They are skills. It’s craftsmanship … I don’t have a specific niche that I collect. If it’s cool, I’ll get it. “

The Cooks opened the museum in October 2018 to share their collection and preserve artistic works with ties to the history of Tucson or America.

Ryan Fish / KGUN

Jude Cook, co-owner of the Ignite Sign Art Museum in Tucson

The museum holds plastic signs, neon signs, and seemingly everything in between. They range from small street signs to large marquee tents. There are also miniature replicas of some of Tucson’s most famous characters.

Jude is so well connected that he borrows and buys signs from other museums and collections across the country. He also gets calls from the community and finds them online.

Although many of the signs are from outside the Tucson storefront, some are decades old.

“We take a lot of signs through my sign company,” said Cook. “And I kept it. And so many things are signs that you have removed, the customer no longer wanted them. So I’m supposed to dispose of them, so I just hold onto them … They are dismantled, they are put on the floor, they only rot if you don’t do anything with them. “

That’s why Jude leads a team of staff and volunteers who restore signs every week.

“As low as $ 3,000 or $ 4,000, more than $ 50,000,” Jude said of the restoration cost. “That’s 10-12 hours to 50 to 70 to 100 hours.”

The associated work is often extensive, signs are being repainted and labeled. The glass tubes used for neon advertising are bent by hand after being heated at extreme temperatures.

For the small group of committed craftsmen, careful work is part of their passion.

“No automation… it’s all handcrafted, one at a time, and I really appreciate that,” said Steve Justin, who works on signs at the museum and also shows guests how to bend glass tubing.

“I had an absolute ball,” he added. Jude and Monica are fantastic. You are originally from the Midwest. You have this work ethic: constantly to the next project or the next improvement or the next restoration project or whatever. And I want to be there. “

Cook says many of his visitors enjoy the nostalgic feel of the museum.

“The most interesting comment I get, and I wasn’t expecting it, was people coming in and thanking us for our work,” he said. “People who actually remember these signs because it was a part of their childhood, or at least part of their life, that we saved a little piece of.”

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