Creativity takes courage

— Henri Matisse, visual artist

On August 10^th, Mid-City CAN held a community art event showcasing multi-media art installations produced by this year’s Artivism students! The themes of their stories are all centered on environmental racism and city neglect happening in San Diego.

The Artivism program provides middle and high school students ages 13-18 with hands-on art experience that weaves art with activism and leadership development. Students make hands-on art projects and learn about the role art plays in social movements and historic change by exploring how art is used to tell stories about community, self, and social justice. This year’s curriculum included training in photography, videography, video editing software, and audio equipment. Students also learned how to construct installations to screen their short films.

"It was inspiring to see the youth developing their point of view on issues of environmental racism and city neglect through art. As their teacher I was excited for the public to see what the Artivism youth created," said Victor Castaneda H, the program’s teaching artist and Creative Liaison at The AjA Project.

"I've always had an interest in photography, but I’ve never had access to the right equipment, so I wasn't able to practice. But with Artivism I was given a camera, and was able to learn about lighting, color grading, and shutters, which was really cool," said Kathleen, Artivism student.

Another highlight of the program is the field trip and it was a tremendous learning experience for the youth visiting Ocean View Growing Grounds (OVGG), a community garden in Mountain View, and Chicano Park in Barrio Logan.

OVGG is purposely located in a food desert -- an area that has limited access to affordable and nutritious food. The area is a brownfield where the soil is polluted with toxins, pesticides, and other chemicals that make the food grown in that soil hazardous for consumption.

"What we do here is we allow volunteers to take care of the garden as a whole instead of coming in and financially committing to a plot where they don't know how to start growing in an urban area. We're here to provide resources for all prospective growers or people who just want to come in and take care of the land," said Thi Vo, Environmental Justice Learning Hub Manager at OVGG. OVGG is a welcome space for the Mountain View community members and surrounding neighborhoods as the area lacks greenspace.

After a delicious lunch at Maggie's Cafe in Barrio Logan, the students visited Chicano Park and were given a tour by Lucas Cruz of the Chicano Park Steering Committee and Henry Rodriguez of the Brown Image Mural Project. They covered many topics including how the Coronado Bay Bridge and highway built in the 1960s cut through the heart of the community and displaced many residents, and also brought air and noise pollution to the neighborhood.

Lucas also discussed the challenges faced by Chicano artists. 

"A lot of times our art (Chicano Art) is viewed as a subcategory. You go to a Museum of Art and every now and then you might have a piece of Chicano Art and it's treated as a side piece. Why do we allow them to do that to us? The question is 'what are we going to do about it?' said Lucas. He created a safe space nearby, Aztlan Libre Galeria Mestizaje, that focuses on Chicano artists. The venue hosts art shows, music performances, provides a history of Barrio Logan, and more.

The Artivism Program has been an enriching and wonderful experience for the students.

"My favorite part about Artivism has been exploring a new part of San Diego that I've never really taken the time to explore myself, learning about new people and making new friends from different schools and areas of San Diego. It's been really, really nice," said Sage.

Thank you to all of our Artivism students for participating in the program and congratulations for an incredible exhibition on August 10!

Your support keeps our Artivism Program going!

Artivism grows every year with youth traveling from all over San Diego to take part. Help Mid-City CAN continue to provide this program free of charge by making a donation today! Your support empowers the next generation of advocates and artists!

Click here to make a donation!

www.midcitycan.org/donate