by Blake Herzog
For more than four decades, the Phippen Museum has celebrated the artistry of the American West — but this fall, it’s photography that takes center stage. Click: Light up the West opens Oct. 11, showcasing nearly 100 striking images from 17 photographers, most of them local, whose work ranges from rugged cowboy life and sweeping desert vistas to abstract landscapes and star-filled night skies.
Turn the page to learn more about the upcoming exhbit.
For more than 40 years the Phippen Museum has been Prescott’s showcase for fine art inspired by the American West’s past and present. Paintings, sculptures, sketches, ceramics and other art forms make up its permanent collection of more than 800 pieces.
But it includes just two photographs, both taken by Barry Goldwater, and a print of a photograph taken by Will Rogers.
This gap is addressed every couple of years by an invitational photography exhibit featuring artists from across the West. This year’s edition is Click: Light up the West and runs from Oct. 11 through Jan. 11, 2026.
This year, 16 out of the 17 featured artists are based in Greater Prescott, and all were invited based on their participation in previous Phippen Click shows or the overall quality of their work, says museum assistant director and curator Jeannette Holverson. The predominance of local photographers this time doesn’t mean local scenes dominate the content, and the styles vary tremendously.
“Kathy McCrain is known for her ranching photography and there’s a lot of action in that — branding, roping, overall cowboying,” Holverson says. “Some artists are like that, there are others that take a different approach, like local photographer Chris Marchetti, even if he’s doing a landscape, the way he shoots it, it can look very abstract and that’s his intention.”
Visitors will see nocturnes of the Milky Way, forest and desert landscapes including the Grand Tetons, Monument Valley and Superstition Mountains, bison and other wildlife, livestock and other arresting scenes.
The material the photographer chooses to print the image onto can have as much of an impact on the piece as the content, and the creators of Click exhibits have chosen a wide range of formats, Holverson adds: “Artists can submit wrapped canvas prints, some artists choose to print on aluminum and that gives them a very contemporary look.
“Sometimes they’re framed or they’re unframed, and we have one piece that’s printed on maple wood. Some are on archival paper. We did get some photos printed on acrylic and glass in the past.”
You can buy any of the images, though they must stay at the museum for the duration of the exhibit.
About 100 images are on display in the Kemper and Ethel Marley Gallery, the museum’s largest, and are accompanied by a “mini-exhibit,” which Holverson says has been done with all of the Click shows. Last time in 2022, the artists’ works were supplemented by images from the Hubbell Telescope. This time visitors can watch the evolution of the technology behind photography by seeing cameras and other equipment from throughout the ages.
“We’ll have those on exhibit, just to have the overall feel be a little bit more dynamic, since this is a show that has no sculptures,” Holverson says. “This is a way to have a little bit more to it. We always like to have an educational component anyway.”
There will be another learning opportunity Nov. 1 as Joe Webster, one of the local photographers featured in the gallery, gives a lecture about The Photograph as Art at 1 p.m.
From its perch within the Granite Dells, the Phippen is an ideal spot to ponder the almost fierce beauty of Western landscapes and the life that survives in it. The museum hosts several shows and exhibits every year, including the Western Show and Sale, the Hold Your Horses! Invitational Exhibit and Sale and the Miniature Masterpiece Show and Sale. It also houses the Arizona Rancher and Cowboy Hall of Fame.
While it’s debated in some circles whether photography qualifies as fine art, Holverson says the work these artists do is an answer in the affirmative.
“These photographers are creative, and this medium is the format that they’ve chosen to share their vision with the world,” she said.
The Phippen Museum is at
4701 N. AZ-89 in Prescott. For more information call 928.778.1385 or visit
www.phippenartmuseum.org.
