The CA Creative Corps Fellowship at Community Partners, through the leadership of Evonne Gallardo, helps a large group of artists working on different projects.
By Francisco Castro
The current Senior Program Director at Community Partners advocates and finds resources for artists often overlooked by the mainstream
“El arte es la vida” (Art is life), believes Evonne Gallardo, who has worked in arts and culture throughout her entire career.
“I’m a servant of artists,” said Gallardo.
Born in Boyle Heights and raised in East Los Angeles, the former Director of Self-Help Graphics & Art (2009-2014) has devoted her professional life to “finding resources and position artists in the importance that they have in our lives and communities.” For the past year, she has been the Senior Program Director at Communitty Partners, working to reallocate public funds to local artists through Creative Corps, a program that just gave 33 artists with a history of advancing education, equity, environmental and social justice efforts $100,000 each to support their living expenses and a project for an entire year.
“I’m a servant of artists,” said Gallardo, who spoke with Parriva about the the importance of art and artists in our communities.
How important is art to a community? What kind of difference can it make?
EG: I belive artists are essential to a healthy society. Art and artistic expression is not something that is a luxury or fun. I belive that creative and cultural expression is a human right. Artists and creative communities they show us to imagine alternativesm, how to make communities better or how communities are already doing wonderful things. They’re the yeast that makes things grow. The vehicle though which we can experience change.
East LA communities don’t get the same arts exposure as the West side. Why do you think that is and how do we change that?
EG: When people think about LA and its arts and culture communities, they tend to think what they see on television, which the majority happens of West of La Brea. I think it’s a perception problem of what L.A. is. Arts and culture ecosystems—like many other sectors –have a history of inequity. In places like Boyle Heights and East LA, they have that history of having a wonderful, vibrant and important artistic expression, but not been given resources to support that or to sustain it. It’s a deficit.
But regardless of whether we receive help from private or public individuals or institutions, we have created our cultura anyway. It’s people saying “ni modo” we’re going to make it happen.
We have a history of starting something from nothing, something lasting and important because “tenemos ganas.”
Given everything that is going on in the world today, do you think the role of artists has changed?
EG: There are many differrent ways in which artists reflect the world around them by either sharing issues or educating the broader public around specific issues and injustices. For many Black people, Latino, peole of color, their mere existence is an expression of justice. Art is a way of addressing what has historically been an exclusion of those artists from the mainstream art market. A growing number of artists who don’t see themselves separate from the world around them.
How can we achieve equitable arts funding and what would that look like?
EG: Whether is income, education, or housing, environmental health, we see pretty consistently, Latinx, indigenous people, Black people, those are the communities, individuals, that need the most help now. We have to prioritize those artists, those communities in ways that are different, give more resources to address the help that is needed. That may require priorization of some folks over others. We want to get everyone on the same playing field so once we get there we can start giving everyone the same difstrituion of funding. It does take a commitment and sometimes that commitment is not politically popular. But as funders, that is what is needed.
Do you think arts equity has improved in Los Angeles County, or are we still far away?
EG: When we think about social change and equity or justice, it is not a straight line. Oftentimes, this work is one step forward, two steps back. In LA County, not only are we faced with that realit but I think we always underestimated the complexity of our region. We are incredibly diverse.
It is both moving forward and embracing our complexities more and more that creates a greater understanding of what is needed.
But it is hard to measure. Still, the focus and attention and commitment feel a lot stronger than it has in the past.
What do you say to young people who might want to become artists?
EG: Talk to other artists, put yourself in the environment of other creatives. Listen to artists who are living and working and ask them how they’re doing it. There is not one path. Create a path for yourself that makes sense to you. But first and foremost, wherever you find artists, ask good questions and listen to their experiences.
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