Without frequent exposure to art, viewers may struggle to discern whether they’re looking at an impressionist masterpiece or out a heavily smudged window. Momentarily escape from reality with today’s Groupon to Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson. Choose from the following options:

• For $7, you get one ticket to a lecture in the Art Now! series (up to a $15 value). The series is held on Wednesdays from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and includes the following topics:
• October 26: “ABC Art, Idiot Art, Know-Nothing Nihilism: Minimal Art in Primary Structures at New York’s Jewish Museum”
• November 2: “The De-Materialization of the Art Object: Conceptual Art in Seth Siegelaub’s January Show and Live in Your Head”
• November 9: “Escaping the Art Market: Earth Art at Dwan Gallery and the Dia Foundation”

• November 16: “What Happened? Summary of Period”
  
  

• For $8, you get museum admission for two (up to a $16 value).
• For $16, you get museum admission for four (up to a $32 value).
  
  

Showcasing the works of a wide range of local and international artists, Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson presents visitors with a well-curated visual cross-section of the modern-art world. The museum’s Art Now! lecture series covers a wide range of topics on art and culture spanning from 1960 to 1980. Attendees absorb the insights of lecturer Dr. Paul Ivey and mix and mingle with fellow art lovers while munching snacks, sipping wine, and enjoying one-night-only permission to lick the paintings.

With museum admission, groups of two or four art gawkers can rove within the rotating collections of paintings, sculpture, and installation art that fill the museum’s renovated firehouse interior. Current exhibits include a collection of abstracts by Dutch painter Gerben Mulder. The recently opened exhibition Raymond Pettibon: The Punk Years, 1978–86 showcases Pettibon’s sometimes disturbing graphic-design creations, such as album covers, posters, and crocheted tea cozies, for punk legends including the Dead Kennedys and Black Flag.