Rebecca Petty

Rebecca Petty started with Access Gallery in the Fall of 2014. With her teaching background, love for helping others, and passion for art, she was a perfect fit for the organization. Over the past ten years, her value continues to grow as her knowledge and expertise in all aspects of the organization increases. She has supported the organization and the artists in many capacities, including teaching, mentoring, curriculum and program development, fundraising, and more.  

Through her work as a volunteer teaching artist and a creator of many of our interactive and educational curriculums, she has expanded the knowledge and increased the exposure to new art forms that educate around disability issues and gives all people the opportunity to create and enjoy the arts. 

Currently, she is working with Access Gallery artists to create community workshops that utilize the talent and skills of our established artists with I/DD. Working with them to create curriculums using their art form and interests to develop workshops that they then have an opportunity to make money with. These workshops have been brought into various settings throughout Denver, providing unique programming and sharing the vital work that Access Gallery does. 

In addition to her work as a teaching artist, she has made a significant impact on the artists who work at Access Gallery regularly. She is a friend and a mentor. She has worked tirelessly to advocate to get the artists at Access Gallery to have sellable and unique finished products of their work. Some of these projects include helping Adrien, an Access Gallery Artist, make his own game out of his characters in the form of a card game. It was a huge undertaking and she spent many hours working with him to figure out the game and put it in a format together. Also, she worked many hours with Jareth to get him to illustrate his first book, with a story she had written titled The Purple Lion. She is currently teaching a writing class where five artists have worked together to create a collaborative graphic novel. One can not underestimate how much work this involved and how much mentoring, support and tenacity it took to make this product happen.  

In addition to her volunteer creative work, she has gone above and beyond to help the families over the years with needs and personal support. When Covid hit, she showed great concern over a few families of our artists that did not have the ability or the resources to navigate the changes caused by the pandemic.  Her concern for each family played out in various ways, including making calls and checking in with families during COVID-19, bringing dinner boxes and toilet paper and other needed supplies to their front door. 

Her strong devotion and commitment to the organization, the impact she has made on the artists and her contribution to the community has been a tremendous blessing to the organization. She continues to go above and beyond for Access Gallery and the people that we serve and that is why we would like to honor Rebecca Petty for this wonderful recognition.

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*Each organization nominated their honoree with an essay. Those essays are posted here, as submitted, to maintain the organization's unique voice and authenticity.

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