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Arte Americas - Mateo De Anda, Week 1/2 (7/10 - 7/18)

 Preface: My workdays at Arte Americas are Wed-Sun to maximize my experience and involvement with public events. Therefore, rather than reporting on the two complete workdays last week (much of which were introductions), I'm writing last week's recap along with the beginning of week 2's. 


Upon arriving at Arte, I was introduced to the two major projects that I'll be heading in my time here. Similarly to NMAL, Arte Americas is in its formulating stages. Significant funding has only recently been granted, bringing both physical and curricular expansion of the center. Many new programs are just being developed to fill its purpose of celebrating and preserving Latinx arts and cultures. My first major project is presenting analysis and recommendations on potential future programs catered towards adolescents. Reminiscent of the week in D.C, I spent the first few days researching generational demographics and trends, 
though in this case they were based in the state of California. I also focused on searching for teen programs amongst other successful cultural and art institutions, many of which house fellow Young Ambassadors. After, I gathered a national overview, my next steps have been to gather information on existing local programs in the Fresno area, to learn from them about their backgrounds and experiences with the target population. I have met with one already, and plan to coordinate with others soon. 

                         (Libreria Docelles Exhibit space and book)            (Testing an Arte Workshops paper-making project)   

Bilingual Story time is a program at Arte that has local authors come in to read children's books to families. This program happens to be a virtually identical to that promoted by NMAL through its Young Ambassador led Bilingual Storytime outreach effort. That means I'm going to have the benefit of participating in this event through the lenses of the reader and the hosting organization, observing both the real time applications and the long-term efficacy of the program design.



In the meantime, while I prepare for my Bilingual Story time event, there are many events that I'll be facilitating at Arte. One such event was last Thursday. Art Hop is a district-wide monthly event made possible by a collaboration of museums and institutions like Arte Americas and CMAC and other downtown public institutions. The idea for this event is for people to "hop" from stop to stop to get a taste of what each space has to offer. Each stop also makes special preparations exclusively for the event. At Arte this looked like a Cempasuchil germination workshop, a selection of community vendors and a taco truck. For me this meant spending the afternoon arranging tables and chairs, sweeping the gallery and gathering feedback on the current Libreria exhibit. Overall, I feel that this period I've done a little bit of a lot. I am particularly looking forward to further observing the methodical planning of the future of Arte. 








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