BETWEEN FENCES Exhibition

L-R: Julie Flatt, designer & coordinator of featured Mural; Elaine McCants, President of Caballos del Sol; Chip Davis, Yavapai County Supervisor; Audra Stadelman, Coldwell Banker; Mary Liggit, Director of Exhibitions; John O'Neal, Director, Cottonwood Library; Diane Joens, Mayor of Cottonwood; Barbara U'ren, Superintendent of Cottonwood Oak Creek School District; Debbie Wilden, President/CEO, Cottonwood Chamber of Commerce; Wayne St. John, President El Valle Artists.

Clemenceau Heritage Museum recently hosted the Smithsonian Exhibit, Between Fences, part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian and the Federation of State Humanities Councils, designed specifically for small rural museums.   Through the Arizona Humanities Council, six museums in Arizona were chosen to participate, beginning with Nogales in October, 2007 and ending at Winslow in August, 2008.

The exhibit has five components, each with a special theme, with pictures and stories and artifacts that illustrate each theme in a captivating manner.  It explores the multiple meanings behind fences, which, whether made of split rails, decorative white pickets, tall chain link or stone, convey information about the people who built it, how they view and use their property, their relations with neighbors and how we view our communities.  Between Fences explores the implications of fences in Colonial America, around gated communities, at our country's borders with Canada and Mexico and right here in the Verde Valley, both historically and in the present.

The Verde Historical Society partnered with the Cottonwood Oak Creek School District, the Cottonwood Public Library and the Cottonwood Chamber of Commerce to bring this exhibit to the Clemenceau Museum.  Concurrently an exhibit of photographs by local folk of local fences was on exhibit at the Cottonwood Public Library.