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The Artist’s Sketch: Kelly Boon
Kelly
Boon’s energy and enthusiasm for the arts are as colorful as her paintings,
dance and mime performances. As the founder and executive director of pARTners
Unlimited, Boon has succeeded in fulfilling the organization’s mission to
“provide experiential learning through the arts for individuals at risk
of delinquency or criminal behavior.”
“After running the pARTners program for a year, I finally realized why
I was doing it,” Boon said. “It was about me. It finally hit me that
I identify with them, because I’m one of them. We live in a culture that
rewards traditional learning styles and alienates creative or abstract thinkers.
By not 
recognizing
the importance of the gifts every child has, we are sabotaging them and
our communities.”
Boon received her B.A. degree in arts education from Colorado State University (though she was “Iowa corn fed and raised”). After several years of teaching art in the public school system, freelancing and choreographing and performing with a local jazz troupe, she moved with her two children back to Iowa where she worked with the Iowa Arts Council as its arts in education coordinator. On her second day, Boon was assigned to work on the Lt. Governor’s Committee on Diversity, where the seeds of her current work were planted.
“My
interest in diversity also included outreach with underserved populations,”
she said. “I began to partner with other government agencies to establish
multiple artist residencies working with at-risk youth. Not only did these programs
demonstrate meaningful results, but also information began to cross my desk from
other states showing significant outcomes in arts in correctional facilities.
This was the leverage I needed to establish programming in Iowa.”
pARTners currently has a team of 16 artists located around the state, representing all disciplines. Because the clientele is extremely fragile, Boon ensures the artists undergo an intensive training process prior to employment. Volunteers also support the organization through board and council membership, advocacy, in-kind contributions and community involvement.
Boon
recalls a time pARTners worked with students at Scavo Campus, a Des Moines alternative
school. Not only was it their first time performing before an audience, but also
the staff was concerned about how respectful the response would be.
“Imagine our surprise when the entire auditorium stood with an enthusiastic standing ovation,” Boon said. “The staff had never seen a response like this before. Transforming lives through the creative arts reaches beyond the participants in the programs. We are all changed forever.”
pARTners is now in the process of designing a partnership with a national re-entry program to establish a headquarters for the organization and a re-entry center for Des Moines. Under the guidance of professional artists, pARTners plans to renovate an old warehouse and turn it into a work of art. Work release inmates and ex-offenders will assist in the design and construction of the building and landscape, Boon said.
“Our vision is to enhance tourism through the unique design of the building, created and constructed through pARTners programs,” she said. “The building will operate as a national headquarters utilizing creativity and functioning as a model of the often overlooked potential that lies within each of us.”
Boon is listed in the Directory of Iowa Artists and Performing Groups.
Visit her directory
page at or find out more about pARTners Unlimited by visiting www.partnersunlimited.org.
