This is the grant report submitted to the Texas Commission on the Arts for the 2016 funded Community Catrina project.
TCA Community Catrina Project Report Narrative
Audience Info:
Total persons served directly: 90
Number of youth served: 79
Number of artists directly involved: 1
Ethnic Breakdown: 90% Hispanic; 5% Black; 5% Caucasian
Cultural Tourism:
Did grant promote cultural and/or heritage tourism No
Did you capture zip codes of attendees No
Personnel Info:
Artists who received a fee: 1
Non-artist volunteers: 1
Full-time personnel: 3
Narrative
How did this grant benefit your organization and/or community? (400 words)
The Community Catrina project allowed EPMA to engage with an underserved audience, to enrich existing community partnerships, and to partner with a fellow city agency. Although the South El Paso community is within easy reach of the Museum, its residents rarely cross the institution’s threshold. EPMA has sought to address this through programs partnering with specific South El Paso schools, for example the long-running Neighborhood Kids program with Aoy Elementary School, and, more recently, Art Beats, with the El Paso Symphony Orchestra’s Tocando Music Project at Hart Elementary School. The Catrina project engaged both of these pre-existing partnerships, while also reaching out to attendees of the Armijo and Chuihuahuita Recreation Centers’ afterschool programs.
Making individual or family Dia de los Muertos altars allowed participants to explore their inner artist in a form with cultural significance to them. Several teenaged participants chose to honor pop stars, such as Selena and Paul Walker. Most of the younger ones honored grandparents, other relatives, or pets, including, in one case, a beloved pet turtle. Most, if not all, of the participants from the recreation center, had never had any connection to the art museum, even though it shares their zip code. The experience also gave participants the opportunity to work with a professional artist, Wayne Hilton, who inspired them and encouraged them to use their own creativity and imagination. Hilton commented that “engaging with the altar makers tryly stirred my artistic direction with the piece and the overall project.” The completed Catrina figure was unveiled in a celebration at the Museum that included the public presentation of the Mexican Consulate’s Dia de los Muertos altar, and an open house for Wayne Hilton’s Hermosos Huesos: Beautiful Bones exhibit of Catrina figures. This allowed the participants in the Community Catrina project essentially to become exhibited artists within a larger cultural context.
For the Tocando participants in particular, the project brought their families together. It also allowed the principal of Hart Elementary, who attended the celebration, to see program impact outside of the school grounds and build trust between all parties. Finally, it brought the program to the attention of the District Representative, who was also in attendance at the celebration.
Describe any anecdotal information and/or human interest stories that have occurred as a result of this grant. (400 words)
During a parent conference for the Tocando program, one mother, who had initially been reluctant to come in and talk about the program, commented that the Catrina project had given her “complete buy-in” to Tocando. She also said that it was the first time that the entire family had come together in a long while.
Another set of parents commented on how happy and engaged their child had been during the project, and particularly during the celebration when they got to show off their work. She is quite shy and tends to be withdrawn, but they said that on that evening she interacted with friends, was smiling and excited.
On a personal level, I was particularly struck by one of the participants in the very first workshop. She expressed reluctance to leave her piece so that we could use it in the large-scale Catrina. The Recreation Supervisor spoke with her, and explained that she wanted to place it on her grandmother’s headstone in the cemetery. After we showed her a photo of the maquette for the Catrina, and explained that she would get the altar back after the celebration, she was willing to leave it behind. What this said to me was that this project had brought art-making and the museum to a very personal place in this little girl’s life.
The Museum Doctor 