Arte Américas-Gabe Ramirez, Week 3

 Hey everyone, my third week has been an actual rollercoaster. I was in charge of helping as much as possible for 2 main events: Ritmos Tropicales and the Showcase for the FUSD summer art program. Fresno is hot, and I would show up with about 15 other people to set up a massive party that the museum hosts every summer. I was in charge of selling tickets, checking for IDs, handling the raffle table, and collecting donations for the drag queen performance. This event alone was so work-heavy but so worth it. The community surrounding Arte shinned through with its strong ties to its volunteers. The program manager talked to me about the importance for her that every event that she plans comes out to be better than the last to serve her community, and that was very enlightening. 

My new friends and I after a successful event


The FUSD summer camp showcase extended my knowledge of a curator's job. A curator at Arte took the responsibility of organizing and setting up everything for the showcase, which turned out wonderful. I offered up my time to help with the setup (which was very intense). The curator and 3 other people, including me, stayed up very late at night to paint, prepare, organize, and finalize everything we needed for the showcase. The responsibility that was given to me was to paint the blocks that would be used to hold up the ceramic artwork the children made. The last night we stayed at the museum till 11pm, and everyone was worried about the smallest details which showed me how much effort they put into everything. I saw that the curator's effort was a reflection of her person, and poured a lot of effort into something that resembled the cutest exhibit in Fresno. 

Finishing up my task at 11pm

The program manager brought us a late-night snack

Even though the program was not specified for Latinos, it was a very culturally enriching program. And one of the best(I'd say personally) reflections of that is the following painting. The teacher that I was assisting for a while is a very talented person and made sure every child expressed things about themselves they probably would have never imagined. Below is a picture of the child's work, and an amazing description that I feel like everyone should read(it almost sounds like a poem). 

"I choose to represent myself like this because I find it
hard to see myself any other way. I chose my skin tone because
a lot of people don't realize I'm Mexican because I am
lighter than the rest of my family. it's kinda like my secret
that I'm proud of. I chose my background because I see the
 world in splatters of color"
- Zoe Matoian





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