Students work at Sedona Arts Center’s Gallery 9284 min read

By
Julie Richard
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Gallery 928 students from the 2023 cohort do a color study with the instructor. Photo by the Sedona Arts Center

Sedona Arts Center started Gallery 928 last summer to engage talented high school students who might be interested in pursuing a career as an artist. Participating students work with a master artist to conceive of ideas and present them to the “client” – the Sedona Arts Center in this case – and then create a work of public art that is then installed somewhere on site.

Sasha Daglow, of Sedona Red Rock High School, left, and Rimrock resident Cate Worden, of Camp Verde High School, paint a surrealist version of the iconic Rabbit Ears monolith in the VOC through Gallery 928 in July 2022. David Jolkovski/Larson Newspapers

Last year, the participating students worked with master artist, Alex Rupert, to create “Geometry at Dusk” – this is the students’ description of the work: This piece is a geometric rendition of the Rabbit Ears formation in Sedona.

The painting directs the viewer into a theoretical position, looking up at the formation from Oak Creek.

Professional artist Alex Rupert, left, and Sasha Daglow, of Sedona Red Rock High School, paint a surrealist version of the iconic Rabbit Ears monolith in the VOC through Gallery 928 in July 2022. David Jolkovski/Larson Newspapers

It includes a dynamic sky using colors to represent a time between day and night which reflects into the water at the bottom and creates an intentional flow that leads the eye into every detail and aspect of the work.

Sasha Daglow, of Sedona Red Rock High School, right, and Rimrock resident Cate Worden, of Camp Verde High School, center, worked with artist Alex Rupert to create “Geometry at Dusk.” This is the Daglow and Worden’s description of the work: “This piece is a geometric rendition of the Rabbit Ears formation in Sedona. The painting directs the viewer into a theoretical position, looking up at the formation from Oak Creek. It includes a dynamic sky using colors to represent a time between day and night which reflects into the water at the bottom and creates an intentional flow that leads the eye into every detail and aspect of the work.”
Photo by Sedona Arts Center

Fast forward to this summer and we have ten students from Red Rock, Mingus, and Camp Verde High Schools, a few students who are home schooled, and one student from Chicago who is here visiting her grandparents for the summer. They are working with master artist, Leonardo Beltran, to create two murals on the parking lot wall between the Arts Center’s two buildings.

The final mural is installed on the east side of the Sedona Arts Center in July 2022. David Jolkovski/Larson Newspapers

This week, the students presented their process and ideas to the Arts Center board and staff, parents and stakeholders. It was incredible watching this disparate group come together over the past two weeks to learn new concepts, technology (each student is given an iPad to use during the program), and how to work together as a team. They succeeded in spades!

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The students came up with two mural concepts: one depicting the historic Jordan homestead prior to the Arts Center’s acquisition of it in 1960; and the other mural depicts the Arts Center today. Over the next three weeks the students will be painting the murals on aluminum panels that will then be affixed to the wall.

At the conclusion of the program, students will receive three credits from Yavapai College and a $500 stipend for their work.

Funding for this program was made possible by an anonymous donor, APS, Yavapai College, the Kling Family Foundation, and the AZ Commission on the Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Julie Richard,

CEO Sedona Arts Center

Julie Richard

Julie Richard has been the Executive Director of Sedona Arts Center since January 2021. Richard earned her Master of Arts degree in Arts Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin as well as a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and music and a Leadership in the 21st Century certificate from Harvard University. She spent time running the Syracuse opera in Upstate New York and eight years heading the Maine Arts Commission, where she was awarded Governor’s Manager of the Year at the Maine Arts Commission.

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