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BISBEE — Carmen Watts-Clayton, a Bisbee artist and the organizer of the Southwestern Institute for Culture and Art, received the Director of the Year award for a small non-profit in December from the Organization for Non-Profit Executives.
ONE recognizes nonprofit executives who are examples in the community and are dedicated to the excellence in the management and leadership of their organization.
She received the award as recognition for her work in taking the 50-year-old elementary school on Tombstone Canyon and turning it into a multi-medium art gallery with rentable studios for artists and even musicians. Watts-Clayton has worked with her husband David and many volunteers to restore the old building in full throes of neglect.
 Carmen Watts-Clayton stands in the Southwestern Institute for Culture and Art in Bisbee. Watts-Clayton has been recognized as the Non director of the year by the Organization of Non-Profit Executives. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review) |
“You wouldn’t have believed how bad it was,” she said. “This place was trashed. There was no roof. The ceiling tiles were down and laying all over everything. The classrooms were filled with old school equipment and broken furniture. It took a lot of work and the work is still ongoing.”
Several years ago, some of the art instructors talked about having their own place to teach classes,” Watts-Clayton said.
The building, owned by the school district, had been vacant and seemed to be a good fit for what was in mind.
“I felt there was a need for a place like this in Bisbee with the large artists community we have here. We want to support new artists in their development,” she said. “We worked so hard. Volunteers’ help was all we had. We only operate on donations and now and again we get a grant, so we couldn’t afford to pay for labor.”
Funding for materials for renovations came from historical grants. Once she learned the age of the building, she began researching those grant opportunities and, eventually, applied.
She is hoping to receive another to finish off the newly remodeled auditorium, where she envisions theater groups holding their productions.
“This room was filled with a pile of chairs that went to the ceiling. We had asbestos and mold issues to deal with. Fortunately, those problems have been mitigated. The auditorium is about 90 percent complete. There really isn’t much left to do in here,” she said. “There really is no place like this for theater groups in Old Bisbee with this much seating potential.”
After five years of hard work, the center offers huge studios converted from classrooms — plenty of room for any artist in any medium to have room to work, eat and sleep. A main gallery is open to the public Monday through Friday.
One of the rooms was turned into a children’s art experience room with a library for home-schoolers and 12 planned computer stations. She hopes to apply for grants to finish off the room with the equipment needed. There also will be stations that encourage discovery. One will be a mineral table where children can dig in the sand and find and discuss the various minerals. Another is planned as a space rocket for imaginative exploration.
She also is setting up a variety of classes in several art mediums, though not ceramics. There have been children’s art classes offered, too.
“We have a few of the studios rented out,” Watts-Clayton said. “People come here to enjoy the quiet and privacy. And Bisbee is such a great town, some just find housing here and don’t leave.”
The center also supports the many shows that come to town such as the gem and mineral show and gallery shows. “We try to do all we can in conjunction with the other events that happen in town.”
She is also planning this year’s festivals. In February, there will be a members invitational show and in April a photography show. Hopefully, the theater will be ready for its first show in May for the grand opening. Others may be planned.
One might think she has a pretty full plate, but she does even more. Throughout the year she takes around 1,000 middle school children on tours through the town.
She is also an accomplished traditional tapestry artist and many of her beautiful and ingenious works hang on walls throughout the center. She has taught and exhibited tapestry weaving for more than 22 years following traditional methods.
There are also workshops to plan in drawing, painting, textiles, sculpting, carving and digital arts technology taught by such artists as Robert Bryant, Dugo Nore, Charles Marlow and Richard Byrd.
Watts-Clayton did not know she was nominated until she got the call inviting her to the dinner and awards ceremony. Jill Morose and an unknown person from the Restoration Museum nominated her for the award. Watts-Clayton spent a month writing the grant that got the museum $100,000 in funding to repair the old building at no charge.
“It was great to get the recognition out of all those non-profits,” Watts-Clayton said. “There are 20,000 just in the state of Arizona.”
Her husband said the award had good timing.
“She needed a boost,” David said. “We all need confirmation in our work. And she really earned this with the amount of time and work she has done on this place. Now her contemporaries are aware of her work.”
herald/review reporter Shar Porier can be reached at 515-4692 or by e-mail at shar.porier@bisbeereview.net
Ezai I. Martinez wrote on Jun 24, 2009 7:58 PM: