Our Phoenix Drop in Gallery (DIG) is a place where homeless youth are empowered; trained in the skills of artistry and small business. 

Our Goal... to allow the youth to fully understand the material within closed workshops before opening them up to the public and our surrounding community members so they may impart their learned knowledge and skills to our community members in return building relationships with them as well developing healthy social skills.

Our workshops are designed to incorporate team and leadership building, as well as organizational skills.  DIG is a place where youth find their niche and are given that creative outlet that we are always looking for.  In turn, the art that is made during these workshops and one on one instructional sessions are put up for sale in our first friday show of the month. The profit is split 70/30 between the youth and materials for future workshops and workspace.   Our gallery is diverse in displaying various types of art.  Types of art we have either worked or are working on are stone sculptures, recycled and earth jewelry, welded steel sculpture, ceramic work including pottery, prints, drawings, paintings, video and performance pieces.  Our shows vary from month to month depending on the direction of creative flow in our workshops and the youth attending these workshops...

Welding:
Begins with a safety and regulations course that is then tested before the youth can begin to work with the equipment.  After passing the welding knowledge test they then move on to gathering and creating their own welded sculptures and other various welded forms.

Ceramics:
Our wheel throwing portion starts off with a one on one demonstration and assisted throwing session until the youth can wedge, center, and pull the clay into stable forms.  After which they are then given access to throwing with general supervision and all materials made are placed on a drying rack to be fired and glazed (painted).

Handbuilding:
Clay sculpture is more of a beginners introduction to clay, with a short demonstration on how to throw slabs of clay and use slip to join clay together.  The rest of the workshop is spent using creative ideas to build and create sculptures/jewelry/or any other small clay forms.

Mosaics:
We use recycled dinnerware as well as found glass on wood board for our mosaics.  There is a short demonstration of how to apply adhesive and attach the tiles and then the majority of the class time in spent creating the actually mosaic.  The second session is spent grouting the mosaic (filling in the cracks between the tile with a sandy material.

Glass Manipulation:
Currently This class begins in small groups of 2-3 and is given a lengthy demonstration and asked to work one on one with the instructor for the first attempts at shaping the glass.  Recycled bottles and glass rods are used with map gas torches to create things as recycled jewelry and other items.

We are currently in the process of creating stone carving and rock tumbling workshops. 

For a list of our CURRENT COMMUNITY DIG WORSHOPS,
please check out the link below:

www.meetup.com/dropingallery