Cultivarte

Program 1 reflective fluctuations exhibition, april 21, 2022, through august 11, 2022, was a collective exhibition featuring the artwork by some of our previously featured artists including allan gindic, carlos grajeda, nol heller, shellee laurent, lizett montiel, pedro morales, and cristina zorrilla speer. The exhibit was presented with support from the visual arts department at laredo college. It featured contemporary artwork in painting, ceramics, found objects, mixed media, video, and an audio/visual installation. The exhibition was on view at the martha fenstermaker memorial visual arts gallery, located at the fort mcintosh laredo college campus. Reflective fluctuations is our first curated exhibition that brought a diverse group of laredo-based artists together to share their observations. The exhibition was visited by over 500 people composed of laredo college students, faculty, and the public.

Program 3 virtual artist-in-residency, april 1, 2022 through november 30, 2022, granted fine artists a stipend to work remotely for three months to create a new body of artwork while working closely with a mentor and engaging with a virtual audience. The rigorous application process is open to multidisciplinary visual artists, media artists, and writers interested in exploring and expanding their artwork or creative practice. The applications are evaluated by a selection committee composed of other artists, arts professionals, and educators. Designed to contribute to the professional and artistic growth of selected artists, v-air encourages self-identified up-and-coming and emerging artists to explore innovative ways to work with materials, and concepts, to activate their own spaces to be conducive to focused work. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age. Selected artists receive a 1,250 stipend to support their practice during their residencies. Applicants were reviewed and selected by a selection committee in a two-round process. Two jurors select their top 5 artists using a rubric to help them rate artists based on the quality of their artwork, organization of their proposals, and their ability to outline the vision of their residencies. Top selections move to a second round in which the last juror selects the final four artists. This year, our selection committee included hector hernandez (artist; austin, Texas), debbie goldberg (artist and educator; laredo, Texas) and marcela moran (filmmaker and university professor). Our selected 2022 v-air artists included diego canales, karla gabriela de la fuente, erika ordoez, and itzel vilches. With v-air, we were able to provide 4 hispanic artists, 3 women and 1 man, all native to laredo and the rio grande valley, time and space to create a new body of artwork. During the three months, artists shared their experience by creating content to share on our social media platforms. V- air content reached over 12,300 accounts and made over 15,500 impressions on instagram. This content allowed us to reach over 4,880 non-followers. The artwork produced during v-air included illustration, handmade paper making, painting, drawing, printmaking, and Art installation. V-air allowed the selected artists to develop ideas, rethink concepts, and execute artwork under the guidance of a mentor during weekly check-ins that served as critiques and allowed artists to establish weekly goals and stay in a constant flow of creativity and production. This residency was the first for 50% of the artists. 100% of the 2022 v-air artists said they would recommend this residency to other artists in their networks.

Program 2 place/d: colocados en contexto exhibition, october 14, 2022, through november 11, 2022, was a collective exhibition featuring the artwork by our 2022 artists-in-residence cohort, representative of our virtual artist-in- residency v-air and our newest developed studio residency, Cultivarte- studio residency, c-studio. 2022 v-air artists include diego canales (houston), karla gabriela de la fuente (mission), erika ordoez (laredo) and itzel vilches (san antonio), all south-texas native artists. C-studio artists are nansi guevara (brownsville) and nestor (chicago). The exhibit was presented in collaboration with the Texas a&m international university (tamiu) visual arts department. It was on view at the university Art gallery. The exhibition brought a diverse group of native laredo and south Texas artists together. Their work explored a spectrum of themes including indigenous hand-making practices with a lens of modern working-class people, mindless rituals combined with Art history and illustration, symbology through vanities, drawing and text, reconnecting with cultural roots by printmaking and installation, textile feminist altars in relation to labor, and composed silences through bricolage and transformations of objects. The exhibit included two Art installations which for many audience members was the first time they got to experience that. The opening reception was very well attended. The exhibiting artists that were present (5 of 6), presented concepts and ideas about their artwork, and testimonials about their unique experiences throughout their residencies. The exhibition was viewed by all the fine arts students and faculty at tamiu, and visitors composed of

Program 4 all other programs & exhibitions featured artists series program, february 4, 2022 - november 28, 2022, our featured artists series highlights the diverse artwork of up-and-coming, emerging, and professional artists who are native to the united states- mexico border region of south Texas, or who are currently living and creating artwork in laredo, Texas or nuevo laredo, tamaulipas, our border city. This is an ongoing call for Art. We welcome visual artists 18 years and older to submit their artwork. This is a curated series. Selected artists are featured on our social media platforms with the opportunity to exhibit their artwork at our annual featured artist exhibition. With our 2022 featured artists series, we featured the artwork by 6 hispanic artists, including 3 women and 3 men, all native to laredo. The artists featured included alexander barron, angelica raquel martinez, hector hernandez, alexa hernandez, ricardo segovia, and matilda gutierrez. Our featured artists content reached 21,018 accounts on instagram making over 24,800 impressions, 30% of which were non-followers. Artwork by our 2022 featured artists included painting, fiber Art, mixed media as "Art builds," ceramics, photography, digital Art, conceptual Art, and sculpture. C-studio residency program, april 1, 2022 - november 30, 2022, known as c- studio, our studio residency was designed to contribute to the professional and artistic growth of selected artists. This was our pilot year offering a studio residency. The studio residency commenced with a rigorous application process in which applications were evaluated and selected by a committee composed of artists, educators and other creative professionals. Selected artists were granted a 300 stipend and free access to a studio space in a three-month period, conducive to the focused production of artwork. Selected artists worked independently in a shared studio space, outside of their usual space/s, and had the time to reflect upon and develop ideas under the guidance of a mentor to share with the laredo arts community. C-studio was open to multidisciplinary visual, media, and performance artists living in laredo, Texas who are interested in exploring and expanding their work in a stimulating and nurturing environment, this studio residency is the first of its kind in our south Texas region. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age. C-studio applicants were reviewed and selected by a selection committee in a two-phase process. This year, our selection committee included hector hernandez (artist; austin, Texas), debbie goldberg (artist and educator; laredo, Texas) and marcela moran (filmmaker and university professor). Our pilot program served two hispanic artists native to laredo, 1 woman and 1 man, with master-level education. The artwork produced during c-studio included conceptual Art, bricolage, and Art installation. Themes surrounding perception of the familiar in unexpected ways by the use of contemporary arts practice, and labor as it relates to working class border people and gender were explored. C-studio artists were able to to develop ideas, rethink concepts, and execute artwork under the guidance of a mentor during weekly studio visits that served as critiques and allowed artists to establish weekly goals and stay in a constant flow of creativity and production. Both artists were featured in glasstire, a texas-wide contemporary Art online publication and said they would recommend this studio residency to other artists in their network. C-studio allowed the artists to grow their network of laredo based artists and to form meaningful relationships with them. The success from the pilot program has affirmed the need for further supportive spaces for artists to develop ideas and artwork. Artists talk program, july 22, 2022 - august 26, 2022, artists talk is a series that gives participating artists a platform to discuss issues that are important, relevant, or inspiring to them as artists and allows them to broaden their creative processes. Artists talk is presented on our youtube channel and our social media platforms. It expands an artist's network and broadens the scope of their artwork on a critical level. This year our artists talk summer series reached over 17,000 accounts and made over 19,000 online impressions reaching almost 12,000 non-followers.. The video episodes included talks by diego canales and mauro c. martinez, karla gabriela de la fuente and jol hernndez, erika ordoez and bernardo diaz, itzel vilches and celeste de luna, nansi guevara and moana 'ulu'ave, and nestor and toms ybarra-frausto. The talks were led by our 2022 artists- in-residency and their invited guests included 6 hispanic practicing artists and educators, including chicano scholar ybarra-frausto. Altogether, 12 artists engaged in vivid conversations about Art, culture, and techniques. The talks were inclusive of 6 women and 6 men, including 2 queer artists, 1 chicano scholar, and 1 diasporic storyteller and indigenous (pacific islander) scholar. Avant-garde community series program, september 9, 2022, this year we presented avant-garde community series which featured the versatile repertoire of ballet de monterrey, a 30-year-old international dance company from monterrey, nuevo len, mexico offering classical, neoclassical and contemporary ballet. This program provided low-to-moderate income laredo public school children the opportunity to witness a transformational cultural experience at no charge. Avant-garde community series gave over 300 students and opportunity to witness a professional ballet for the first time. V-air gen1 fire exhibition, march 3, 2022 - march 18, 2022, v-air gen1 fire is a collective exhibition featuring the artwork created by our first generation of virtual artists-in-residence, 2021 v-air. The exhibit was presented with support from the Texas a&m international university college of arts and sciences department of fine and performing arts. Exhibiting artists included alexa hernandez, juan de dios mora, krista s. quintanilla, and victoria marquez. Artwork presented included ceramics, printmaking, and painting. The exhibition was well attended by over 300 students, faculty, and community members. It was open to the public for three weeks at the Texas a&m international university visual arts gallery. The exhibition closed with an Art panel discussion about strategies to maintain an Art practice upon graduation with the exhibiting artists and our executive director and artist maritza bautista. The artists shared a meaningful exchange with the audience composed of faculty and students about their experiences after their graduations, and about how they maintained their practice with limited resources as young artists. The panelists also shared ideas about how to engage and create opportunities within their communities and build their networks.