The Crowns of Courage ArtPrize project began in the fall of 2016 when henna tattoo artists Amanda Gilbert and Steve Stone joined photographer Dave Burgess to celebrate women fighting cancer by giving them elaborate henna tattoo crowns.  Makeup artists Tara Pennington and Jessica Renusson joined the henna crowning team, and eventually 22 courageous Michigan women were crowned as part of the project, which was displayed at ArtPrize 9 in the DeVos Place Convention Center.  

​

Crowns of Courage challenges the traditional aesthetic of feminine beauty and explores a vision of empowerment where pain and shame are normally found. This exhibit is made in collaboration with dozens of West Michigan cancer patients who are experiencing radical cancer treatments. Chemotherapy in and of itself is grueling, and in a culture where women are often judged by superficial standards of beauty, hair loss can add emotional pain to the intense physical cost of chemotherapy. The women of Crowns of Courage are living art. They collaborate with a henna tattoo artist to design a temporary piece of henna art that celebrates their baldness, their struggles and their pain, and draws attention to what is is normally a private struggle concealed beneath wigs and hats. The tattooed portrait subjects are enshrined and preserved in dramatic lit studio photographs.

​

The women of the Crowns of Courage ArtPrize Project were honored to be selected as one of the top five finalists in the prestigious ArtPrize 9 Public Vote.  In addition, Crowns of Courage collaborator Steve Stone was honored with one of the ArtPrize 9 Veteran's Awards, which honors and celebrates ArtPrize 9 artists who have served their country as members of the Armed Forces.