News

Phippen Museum postpones Fall Gathering celebration in anticipation of New Grand Opening!

The Phippen Museum has decided to postpone plans for the 6th Annual Fall Gathering Celebration until next year when our new building is finished. Back in 2005, the Phippen Museum held the very first Fall Gathering in an attempt to reconnect with its roots and create a signature fundraising event that would bring together western art enthusiasts and the local ranching community here at the Phippen Museum. This celebration was patterned after the original opening ceremonies for the Museum back in 1984.

Along with dinner and performances by cowboy fiddlers, there was an art auction and a very special branding ceremony. Local ranchers, especially those who were instrumental in the founding of the Museum, burned their brands onto the wooden beams around the Museum’s porch creating a lasting testament to the connection between the Phippen Museum and the community that gave it birth.

The Museum is currently in the middle of a major expansion. The beams from the old front porch and the 70-plus brands they contain are being dismantled and preserved, and will be incorporated into the new building. The new Phippen Museum will boast more than 17,000 square feet and will include multiple galleries, a new and larger gift shop area, a new front entrance hall, a research library and a multipurpose space that can be used as an art studio or lecture hall.

Phase 1 of the construction is expected to be competed by March of 2011. The Museum will remain open during construction.

Phippen Museum Dedicates New Entrance

The Phippen Museum of Western Art recently held a dedication ceremony for the new entrance to the Museum. The entrance on Highway 89 features The Bronco Buster, a life size bronze statue originally done by Frederic Remington in 1895.

The newly landscaped entrance is the first phase of the Phippen’s project to refurbish and expand the Museum. Over the next year construction will begin on an additional 10,000 square feet, doubling the size of the existing Museum. This will house the Abe Hays art collection and the Phippen family’s private collection of George Phippen’s art, with one gallery devoted solely to the art of the Museum’s namesake and other Cowboy Artists of America.

Mr. and Mrs. Abe Hays of Paradise Valley have agreed to loan three of their art and artifact collections to the Phippen. The first is the largest individual collection of illustrative art, some 100 original pieces, by famous cowboy artist and author Will James. The Hays collection also includes about 40 paintings and drawings by noted Western artist Maynard Dixon, one of only a handful of Western artists whose work today commands over $1 million.

In addition the Hays’s have offered their extensive collection of cowboy trappings and Western Americana in keeping with the Museum’s expanded mission to “preserve the unique heritage, history, legends and art of the American West.” The Museum has already added the Arizona Rancher and Cowboy Hall of Fame as part of this mission.

A capital campaign goal has been set at $3.3 million in the ongoing effort to expand, with $2.4 million raised to date. Architects Lynn Van Landingham and Bill Otwell of Prescott have been selected to design the addition and have begun work on the plans. Haley Construction Company of Prescott will be the contractor.

For comments or questions regarding Phippen events, contact the Events & Volunteer Coordinator.