Self Help Graphics & Art Launches New Youth Committee Rooted in Social Practice
Self Help Graphics & Art launched a new Youth Committee to invest in young arts visionaries and activists. The SHG Youth Committee will generate new ideas and put their arts leadership skills into action around Los Angeles.
Self Help Graphics & Art is a pillar of the LA arts scene and enjoys international acclaim. The space is “dedicated to the production, interpretation and distribution of prints and other art media by Chicana/o and Latinx artists.” Founded in 1970, Self Help Graphics “promotes artistic excellence and empower our community by providing access to space, tools, training and capital.”
The Youth Committee kicks off with a special summer arts retreat designed by Miranda Ynez*, an East Los Angeles native from a family of community artists including her uncles’ David Botello of East Los Streetscapers, and East LA mural pioneer Paul Botello. Ynez explains that the retreat is a “two week series of rigorous workshops with local art leaders, managers, and civic artists.” The retreat addresses an array of complex social issues from juvenile justice to gentrification. “Youth ambassadors will be gathering input to create, develop, and implement new youth programming for Self Help Graphics activations for the 2019–2020 year,” she says. The inaugural Youth Committee includes the following representatives between the ages of 18 and 24: Hélène Philippe, Anaís Orozco, Jake Montoya, Karla Jacome, Gabriella Claro, Samantha Nieves, Oscar Dominguez, Milo Woods, and Aimee Martinez.
This post shares highlights from the opening session on Social Practice in the Arts co-facilitated by Amy Shimshon-Santo and Avila Santo. The seminar ignited critical discussion on social practice and the committee got to know each other better by making art.
The learning objectives for the first day where as follows:
- Understand how social practice in the arts can activate civic engagement and cultural equity.
- Highlight ways that artists and arts organizations work to energize community organizing for social justice.
- Strengthen the bonds between the SHG Youth Committee so it can better achieve its aims.
Social Practice in the Arts
The group critiqued ideas about what social practice is, who does it, and why. Social practice emphasizes social engagement, involves collective forms of creativity, and takes communicative action toward liberation. Pablo Helguera defines social practice in the arts as follows:
“Social action geared to communication and understanding between individuals that can have a lasting effect on the sphere of politics and culture as a true emancipatory force.” (Helguera, 2011: 7)
We studied key terminology (such as community, participation, engagement, collaboration, inquiry, socially engaged arts or SEA), and core competencies including facilitation, negotiating different interests within groups, and analyzing social situations.
The committee studied examples of artists, projects, and organizations committed to social practice. We reviewed projects ideas by artists including Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Adrian Piper, Paul Ramirez-Jonas, Judy Baca, and Suzanne Lacy.
Amy and Avila also shared examples of their own social practice collaborating with the Community Coalition, Exploring the Arts, William Grant Still Art Center. We looked at how young artists are using social media to make political and social statements, like the work of Daion Chesney that used photography to increase the visibility of queer POC during pride month.
Social practice is central to the mission and programs of Self Help Graphics & Art. We compared different expressions of social practice in cultural spaces including: Project Row Houses, the Chicano Park Museum, and the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center.
Art Making
Everyone put their new ideas into practice by making art. The aim was to create and engage with the landscape, and to make art that expresses a narrative about the landscape through sound, words, and images.
We paid attention to the senses while moving throughout the space, and gathered new sounds and words. We also studied listened to how different artists work with found forms including composers Shigeto and Wajeed, and writers Robin Coste Lewis (LA Poet Laureate), and Juan Felipe Herrera (CA Poet Laureate).
Listen to the Field Recording Mix (click here) : Here a composition of ambient sounds of a day in the life of Self Help Graphics on SoundCloud. The sounds were recorded and composed by the Youth Committee, and mixed by Avila Santo.
See spontaneous process collage found poems on place: The Youth Committee used words, local historical photos, and fluorescent color to make process collages on the spot.
It was inspiring to see and hear the new Youth Committee’s visions for community. We look forward to witnessing their important work take shape in the future.
For more information go to www.selfhelpsgraphics.com, and follow them at @SHG1970
p.s. * Learn more about the SHG Youth Committee HERE.
“The Youth Committee is a paid fellowship where youth leaders of the community will come together to gain experience in civic engagement. Through this leadership development, they will receive training to create and lead programming for other youth to increase the awareness of community health issues, youth incarceration, restorative justice in education, LGBTQ+ advocacy, and more. This group is composed of youth ages 15 to 24 years old and will become the new ambassadors of Self Help Graphics where they will provide programming to activate SHG space for other youth to come and participate in becoming aware of the many issues youth face in the community.”
