This is an educational and interactive Community ARTS Resource Exchange. Please feel free to download any information that may benefit a community arts program in your area. We would love your input... Introduction Mission and Goals Guiding Practices Events Peace Event Documents Links Click on images to see a larger version. Pages Created by: Paul Hillman 00856 hits since 10/24/2006		"Community Arts in Dialog and Action" Artists Susan Copeland "How do you define and what are your expectations of community arts?" Community art reaches across social, economic and racial stratums, engaging people in ideas, queries and feelings that are outside of their everyday concerns. It creates connections, educates, spawns dialogue, gets people involved. This involvement can be highly individualized or have a broad reach. It can be personal, regional or global. Susan Copeland is a Phoenix native, educated at the Art Students League of New York and Arizona State University. Her work encompasses a variety of media including: concrete, plaster, recycled materials, clay, and various printmaking techniques. A dedicated social activist, her work has recently taken a political bend, dealing with issues such as incarceration, war, race, urban sprawl and the environment. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions and has had solo exhibitions at the Scottsdale Performing Arts Center, Valley National Bank's Corporate Gallery, Metropophobobia, University of Arizona and the @Central Gallery. She has shown in Russia as part of a cultural exchange and has participated in traveling exhibitions in the United States. She has completed numerous public art projects integrating the natural environment with the artwork of students from the ages of six to twenty-two. She has been a member of ABC/AZ, Artists of the Black Community Arizona, since 1986 and a member of eyelounge artists cooperative since February 2006. She is heavily involved with advocating for the rights of artists and residents in her community. She served as spokesperson and is one of the founding members of the Downtown Phoenix Artists Coalition (D-PAC) and the Downtown Voices Coalition. In addition, she sits on the boards of COBA (the Consortium of Black Organizations and Others for the Arts), Arizona Citizens for the Arts and Arizona Action for the Arts. She has been a commission member of the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture since 2000 and served on many selection and grant panels in that capacity. "The Origin of Man-akins: Misfits in Utopia", plaster and wood, 48"H X 48"W X 6"D Artist Statement on Art in Community by Ralph Cordova This city (Phoenix) is one of the hardest places to be an artist who deals in the subject of community. The difficulty in dealing with an activity like making art, that tries to reflect back to community images of itself is tough stuff. What it is, was, and will be in the future, where we live knowing that in general the idea of common ground in this burg is a non-entity, is a stark reality as it pertains to Phoenix, Arizona. This is the place where we pursue our lives, liberty and happiness, sometimes to the detriment of others. It feels like these kinds of emotions, the "it's all about me" kind, are the biggest obstacles. Why should anyone care if I participate, assimilate or contribute anything to the dominant, oppressive culture of phoniness that talks a good game of truthiness but is just a big pile of linguistic Jell-O. There may be a law soon so that the instrument of linguistic Jell-O will become the official "lengua franca," so much for the First Amendment. Phoenix as a town has thrived as a place where certain players call the shots. The dominant powers that be are so patronizing in many institutions. They believe their view is the right and only way culture is supposed to be. Conform and assimilate is their motto. It does not include the controversial, thought provoking or satirical views in the public forum. Thank God for Wallace and Ladmo. Hyper-individualism is a problem in this city. The truth is, we are all in this together. I hope Phoenix will not become a place where we have sectors. Biography For Ralph Cordova, r_cordova@cox.net, 480-966-4679 Ralph Cordova is a fifth-generation, native Arizonan. He fancies himself a Yankeefied, Pocho Chicano. He grew up in a middle-class suburban neighborhood near McClintock High School. An influential moment in his artistic and personal development occurred in high school when an English teacher told him that he was "Anglosized." Mr. Cordova knew his teacher spoke Spanish fluently. He wondered if his teacher had become "Chicanofied." This event triggered a fascination "with all things Chicanesque"- the phenomena created by the clash and integration of American and Mexican cultures. The thematic bases for his artistic endeavors are drawn heavily from his experience as a "suburban ethnic." He combines elements and symbols from both cultures and creates artwork, which may be humorous, satirical, and/or controversial. He employs both visual and performance art mediums to express his observations concerning the broad spectrum of "Chicanesque vision." the bicultural nature, which has emerged as people have struggled for their identity; and the pains and joys associated with the bicultural experience. This middle way is the best for now. He calls this middle way "Neomestizo." If a person looks at a map of the metro area of Phoenix the middle of the map of the city, the center has a lot going for it culturally. The perimeter of the map has towns like Avondale, Peoria and Tonopah, they seem like dead zones. Where are their museums? Where are their alternative art spaces and performing art venues? There are people in the world who say that the Internet is out there to fill this cultural disconnect. It seems to me more like an exile to a cyber island, out of site out of mind. There is no actual place in the city proper for vital artist self-expression. Does anybody remember our teapots on the freeway walls? We fight the good fight in a place for a place that has an understanding of who and what it is supposed to be. New Yorkers say "I am a New Yorker," Los Angelinos say that is who they are. Are we really Phoenicians, Tempeans, or Apache Junctionities? My family has been living and working in this place for five generations and is still trying to prove to people their Americanidad. "Learning Spanish with Bazooka Joe-a menudo bone self-portrait", mixed media collage in wood box, 12"H X 10"W X 2"D Kristin Elise Fukuchi . photographer . designer, www.asbuiltdesign.com Kristin is a fourth generation Phoenician. From her earliest childhood memories, she can recall traveling, camping and hiking in some of the most beautiful landscapes around the world, from the dry desert to the lush black forest. Having graduated from ASU's Architecture school with a design degree and a Master's in Environmental and Urban Planning she has gained a wealth of knowledge about relationships between the earth and the dweller of the lands. She now owns a design business where she strives to create a seamless flow and balance of the habitant with their surrounding. Her photographs are intents to display the relationship and connection of the human with the environment. On her many journeys she photographs what speaks to her from the environment at that time, whether it is the detail structure of a plant or an all encompassing photograph of her surrounding landscape. "I have been fortunate to live in other countries, to examine and explore the cultural relationship of the city dweller with their surroundings. When I think of community art I visualize these balanced relationships in communal settings, how the natural and the urban have been meshed to give comfort and joy to the dweller. In community it is important to weave the ancient and existing in an act of community art creation that contributes a sense of harmony and balance, enriching our everyday lives and creating a positive interactive environment for all those to partake." "Desert Forms", B&W photography, 21" square Zarco Guerrero - sculptor, maskmaker, musician and actor - born and raised in Arizona, has been a force in the art scene since the early 1970s as a multimedia artist and community arts advocate. The artist has exhibited his sculptures and masks in Mexico and throughout the United States. He has painted over 35 mural projects nationwide. PBS has broadcasted nationally a one-hour documentary about his art entitled The Mask of El Zarco. In 1986, he won the prestigious Japan Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and spent one year in Kyoto, Japan, studying the Noh Masks. In 1993 he was awarded Arizona's Governor's Arts Award for his artistic contributions to the community. In 1998, he completed a larger-than-life sized bronze sculpture of the farm worker leader, César Chávez, commissioned by the City of Phoenix. He is now working on another César Chávez sculpture for the City of San Luis, Arizona where the leader was born and died. Zarco performs regularly in Face to Face in a Frenzy, a one man play in which he uses his masks to create multiple characters. Most recently Zarco and his family wrote and produced Que Pasión! - An Extraordinary Easter Story, which depicts the crucifixion and the resurrection from a unique Chicano perspective. El Katlin (Zarco Guerrero) Particpating Artists: Marco A. Albarran Gary Avey Matt Krise and Chuck Banaszweski Anne Coe Susan Copeland Ralph Cordova Kristin Elise Fukuchi Zarco Guerrero Eugene Grigsby, Jr. Tlisza Jaurique Barbara Kennedy Patsy Skyline Lowry Robert Miley Martin Moreno Gabriella Munoz Dennis Numkena Tom Stephenson Lawrence M. Yáńez CAC Exhibition Dress Artists - Home