This spring, the Phippen Museum docents and the Prescott Art Docents (PAD)teamed up to create a western art experience for 45 juveniles on probation in Yavapai County.
One Saturday a month from March through May, the Phippen Museum, which features "Art of the American West", opened it's doors to a group of teens that were on probation in the Yavapai County Juvenile Justice System. This was an exciting collaborative effort that began with a simple request and kept on growing into a community-wide involvement which resulted in some pretty interesting transformations of old worn out cowboy boots into artistic expressions.
The PAD is a 35 year-old group of about 100 docents who refer to themselves as a "museum without walls". PAD's purpose is to take art of all kinds into the elementary school classrooms in the tri-city area and the adult community through programs designed to promote the understanding and enjoyment of the visual arts. For the past seven years some PAD docents also have been doing hands-on art projects on a monthly basis at the Yavapai County Juvenile Justice System's facility in Prescott.
PAD's docents were asked by a group of Community Advisory Boards (CAB) to provide cowboy boots painted by at-risk youth to be displayed at CAB's 10th anniversary conference entitled "Breaking the Cycle". This conference will be held in September in Prescott. CABs are state-wide citizens' groups that work with the juvenile courts within their county to create programs and projects for troubled youths.
The Phippen Museum docents offered to help with this project by taking the teens on a guided tour of the current western exhibit, thus exposing the kid's to real art. Then the PAD docents, assisted by Phippen docents, used the Phippen Museum's facilities to put the cleaned and gessoed boots in the kids' hands to be painted. The art supplies were underwritten by a donation from the Prescott Noon Lion's Club. Of course the ranching community supplied the used boots and the Juvenile Justice System supplied the teens. Magic happened and the boots were transformed into works of art!
These teens enjoyed and learned from their experience about art and about being part of a community. They were given a photograph of the boot they donated to the CAB event. Since CAB provides for these kids, the boot project brought the community full circle. After CAB's 10th anniversary conference, the boots will returnto the Phippen for display to the public.