Peggy Hazard, Tohono Chul Park's assistant exhibit curator, sets up a display. The park is holding a turquoise art exhibit in its gallery through March 4.

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Tohono Chul Park will have the blues — or, more specifically, turquoise — for more than a month, but park officials are happy about it.

The park, 7366 N. Paseo del Norte, is holding a turquoise art exhibit in its gallery through March 4. Some of the pieces are for sale, and others are from private collections and thus are for display only. The exhibit is free with park admission.

There's a lot of turquoise — the state gemstone — on display, but the exhibit also includes artistic works that feature the color turquoise, which includes many variations of blue and green.

"It's about both the color and the color's significance, especially in this part of the world," said Peggy Hazard, the park's assistant exhibit curator.

Some people consider both turquoise the color and turquoise the stone to be calming, soothing and healing, she said.

Native American jewelry fans will find plenty of Zuni and Navajo creations made from turquoise at the exhibit. Prices of jewelry items up for sale range from a pair of turquoise earrings for $180 to a squash-blossom necklace with matching earrings for $1,980.

But the exhibit includes more than turquoise jewelry. It has nearly 40 pieces including turquoise-themed works from local artists, Hazard said.

One contributing artist, Oro Valley resident Margaret Suchland, has done several dozen pieces of art using the turquoise color family. One of those pieces is in the park's turquoise exhibit.

"Those are some of my favorite colors. I guess it was apropos that Peggy asked me to do the show," Suchland said. Examples of her work can be found on her Web site, www.margaretsuchland.com.

She and her husband, Jay, are fond of Tohono Chul Park. Jay volunteers as a docent and behind the scenes there, and he has two photographs in another of the park's ongoing exhibits — "Earth, Air, Fire, Water," which is in the park's exhibit hall.

The park is an integral part of their lives, Suchland said.

"We either go walking there or have lunch there," she said. "It's like our favorite place."

Though the turquoise exhibit as a whole runs until March 4, two special events are going on this weekend in the park's education center.

A Native American Jewelry Sale will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Admission is free and does not require paid park admission.

At 2 p.m. Sunday, Mark Bahti will give a lecture about his work with Native American jewelry makers and sign copies of his book, "Silver & Stone: Profiles of American Indian Jewelers."

Bahti owns Bahti Indian Arts, a store in the Foothills at 4330 N. Campbell Ave., Suite 73, and also in Santa Fe, N.M. Its Web site is www.bahti.com.

The lecture is free with park admission, but space is limited. To reserve a spot, call the park at 742-6455.