AWC sculptures featured in exhibit at South Texas College
July 15, 2025Art Department seeks permanent home for Yuma-themed installation
Yuma, Ariz. (July 15, 2025) – Totem sculptures crafted by Art students at Arizona Western College are currently being featured in the annual summer exhibit at South Texas College (STC). The invitation-only exhibit showcases schools from across the Southwest. Following the return of the sculptures to Yuma, the Art Department is seeking to find a permanent home in the community for the installation, which tells the unique story of Yuma.
AWC was invited to create an installment for the exhibit after a representative from STC observed similar sculptures outside of AWC’s Art Gallery (view the original sculptures here). Fifteen students then went to work crafting three new themed pieces that detail Yuma’s unique history, agricultural scene, and desert animals and landscape.
“The theme was the students’ choice,” said AWC Ceramics Professor Rebecca Shelby. “I thought it was neat that they wanted to talk about Yuma. Some of them got so deep into it that they spent a good chunk of the year working on it. People got very involved.”
The sculpted totems are attached to heavy metal bases welded by AWC Blacksmithing professor, Miguel Pulido. Once the students had chosen the totem they wanted to work on, they researched and crafted the themed sculptures—each piece individually sculpted, fired, and glazed, then stacked onto a pipe that was welded to the totem’s base. The statues would eventually be titled, “Yuma’s Bounty,” “Yuma’s Flora and Fauna,” and “Yuma’s History.” Well-known landmarks represented in the “Yuma’s History” totem include the Sanguinetti House, Yuma Territorial Prison, and the model airplane that hangs in City Hall.
The community is invited to view the sculptures at the AWC Yuma Campus during the second art show of Fall semester, which will run from September 15 through October 9. The Art Gallery, which is in Room 110 of the AB Building, is open Monday-Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. A campus map can be found here.
Following the art show, the Yuma totems are seeking a permanent home in the community (suitable for both outdoor and indoor locations).
“My big idea is that this group of pieces should be in the community because this is the story of Yuma,” Professor Shelby continued. “We could loan them out for a year at a time to different places in the community. That would be my dream.”
For more information on loaning the installation, contact Professor Rebecca Shelby at rebecca.shelby@azwestern.edu.
Additionally, the AWC Art Department is raising funds to ship the installation from Texas at the beginning of August. Returning the totems to Yuma will cost a total of $1,000. Anyone interested in providing a tax-deductible donation can contact the AWC Foundation at (928) 344-1720 or give online here. Please select “Pass Through Scholarship” as the donation purpose and include “Artwork Transfer” in the memo.
Individuals involved in creating the totems included: Professor Miguel Pulido, Professor Rebecca Shelby, and AWC students Katie Kilgore, Rose Webber, Janet Carper, Allison Barnes, Jenny Alvarez, Grace Crittenden, Ramsey Fischer, Stephanie Slinski, Meghan Smith, Jackie Steinhoff, and Hilary Mulherin.
###
Contact:
Rebecca Shelby
Professor of Fine Arts
Arizona Western College
rebecca.shelby@azwestern.edu