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 00319 hits since 10/24/2006		"Community Arts in Dialog and Action" Artists Robert Miley. Artist and humanitarian, renowned for his painting and sculpture as well as his community work, uses art as a healing tool. His art workshops have been utilized by groups such as The Boys and Girls Club of AZ, Body Positive, Free Arts of AZ, Youth at Risk, and Sanctuary, a shelter for run-away children on Guam, which prompted its Governor Ada to name Robert Honorary Ambassador to Guam.. In 1996 Robert founded Release the Fear (RTF), a grassroots nonprofit community organization based in Phoenix, Arizona. Release the Fear strives to heal those injured by violence, bridge communities, and facilitate creative peace. Release the Fear, under Robert's guidance, developed an educational curriculum program to decrease violent behavior and create possibilities utilizing art as a tool. RTF's sculptural symbol Envision, a sculpture in the middle of Central Avenue, is more than twenty-four feet tall and made from four tons of melted down weapons: hand guns, shotguns, Saturday night specials, knives, etc., all used in the perpetration of terrible crimes against our fellow human beings. The sculpture creates a stunning visual awareness that hate, fear and violence can be changed. It will serve as a tangible reminder that everything is possible in life through our own will. "Release the Fear" Sculpture at Roosevelt and Central, Phoenix Arizona, 22' H made from recycled weapons. Robert is currently working to bring clean water wells to Kenya and other part of the world working with Rotary, through the his art. His signature to art denotes creating "community ownership for public art." He believes input from the community at large generates that ownership, which can also become a deterrent to vandalism. www.rjmiley.com Tim Starkey is a registered Landscape Architect with over 10 years of design experience and commitment to Arizona. He has lectured and taught graphics communication as a Faculty Associate at Arizona State University. Starkey has also been involved with establishing and instructing professional level graphic communication workshops in conjunction with Arizona State University College of Design. Mr. Starkey has teamed with valley artists on projects over the last decade, bridging the gap between art and design in public spaces. One such collaboration included teaming with artist Robert Miley on the Release the Fear project. Martin Moreno was born in Adrian, Michigan, in 1950, where he grew up speaking Spanish at home and English in school. His parents were hard working people in the fields and factories. He credits these experiences with providing much of the subject matter he depicts in his artwork. "My earliest memories of color and rhyme are that of the fields, sitting in the back of a pickup truck watching rows of corn and tomatoes from a visual pattern of rhythm. Listening to the realities of superstition told by the elders, stories of the Llorona (crier), the Earth, stories of my glorious past." All of these images come to life in his sculpture, murals, painting and mosaics. But the beauty is not the only thing Mr. Moreno paints. In the 30 plus years that he has been creating Art, his mission has been to enlighten the public by depicting not only the beauty of mankind but also those areas that are often kept hidden. "I don't always do pretty art, I believe it is the artist's right, even duty, to point fingers and depict the seamier side of humanity when needed." Some of the murals he creates, while at first glance look beautiful and carefree, are often, when looked at with a closer eye, full of images that make up our reality in the 21st century. Images of our young people giving up their lives to drugs, alcohol, and other abuses are sometimes depicted amongst the aloe vera plants that provide us with healing powers. Political statements are made in his monoprints, which spur conversation, heated or otherwise. "Born in the USA" acrylic and canvas, 60"H X 48"W Gabriella Munoz was born in Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua in Mexico. When she was thirteen years old, she was brought to live to the United States by her parents in the hope that she would be able to attend school. She studied at South Mountain High School under George Reiley, who has remained a mentor, and continued on to graduate from ASU with a Bachelor's degree in English Literature. Though not formally trained in any one particular discipline, she has practiced sculpture, painting, ceramics and printmaking; each successively out of necessity due to lack of funds or studio space, a blessing in disguise as this has forced a branching out in the different mediums. In the summer of 2004 she worked alongside Martin Moreno in the painting of a mural at South Mountain High School that sought to integrate the students into community arts, and was invited to stay as an artist in residence for the following year teaching printmaking under a grant aimed at using the arts to enhance the academic success level of students: Art Tells a Story. Munoz's works deal with the immigrant life, the struggle to both assimilate a new culture and the undeniable retention of some Latin-American traditions that are crucial for the formation of a new identity here in the United States as a demographic group that enriches the fabric of American culture. The lives of women and the interconnectedness of various ethnic groups are at the heart of her work. She has exhibited at Young @ ART Gallery in the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts immediately adjacent to SmoCA, the Harry Wood Gallery in ASU, @Central Gallery in the Burton Barr Central Library, and has recently had a one-woman art show at the monOrchid Gallery in downtown Phoenix as part of the first Friday of August. "Motel Maria", linocut and paper, 18"H X 12"Wide "El Otro Lado", linocut and paper, 11 ½"H X 15"W Dennis Numkena was born a member of the snake clan from the Hopi village of Moencopi, Arizona. Numkena left the reservation shortly after his initiation ceremony in the Kiva his father maintained. At the age of 13, he was given into the care of the Phoenix Indian School, a government sponsored boarding school. Numkena's experience there was poor at best. He ran away during his sophomore year. He was rescued by a teacher who provided a home and the incentive to finish his high school experience at Scottsdale High. Identified early as an extraordinary student, he was given a scholarship at the Severn Naval Academy Preparatory School in Maryland. He attended long enough to recognize the incongruity of this life - Hopi's are not sea faring people. He transferred into the army and was trained in computer engineering. At 22 years, worlds away from his village, Dennis Numkena was standing in the Guggenheim Museum in New York City where he was suddenly inspired to become an architect. The rich architectural history of the indigenous peoples, especially those of his Hopi ancestors, the Anasazi and Mayans, caused Numkena to dedicate himself to reinterpreting that architectural language. He returned to Arizona and obtained his degree in Architecture at ASU under the mentorship of Benny Gonzalez, who provided his first job in the field. In 1971, at the age of 30, he formed the first Native American owned architectural firm in the U.S. While Numkena & Associates successfully competed for projects, not far from the drafting table evidence of other passions poured out from tubes of bold color paint and brushes applied to large canvases. Many of his signature buildings house murals painted alongside of the architectural drawings. Dennis Numkena's ability to think in grand scale took him into the realm of stage set and costume design and is best defined by his work on Mozart's Magic Flute produced by ASU's Lyric Opera Theater. The fantastical nature of the opera combined with Numkena's fantastical vision is a brilliant marriage. The first production in 1979 was so impressive that he was asked to produce it another time in 1981. This version was filmed for public television, where occasionally it still plays. Numkena's current architectural project is an impressive structure for American Indian Veterans. The memorial is planned to be built, ironically, on the site of the Phoenix Indian School property, which has become Steele Park in central Phoenix. "From Worlds Above, Worlds Below", acrylic and canvas, 39"H X 56"W 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. Yáñez CAC Exhibition Dress Artists - Home