 Create, converse, and collaborate with your community through the arts!
What does it mean to be civically engaged in your local community? Visual artist, Laura Alvarez, will lead an artivism, poster making workshop. The workshop will provide you with the basic creative tools to analyze your interests in activism and give a platform to express your thoughts and ideas through art. The workshop will utilize collage, lettering, and poster making techniques. You will have the opportunity to share your ideas about community engagement, discuss the issues that matter most to you, and showcase your creativity. About the Artist- Laura Alvarez is a Spanish-born, Bronx-based artist and community activist. She is the co-founder and VP of the BxArts Factory, a nonprofit that supports Bronx-based artists who use their work for social change. She is also on the board of Artbridge, a nonprofit that empowers local artists to transform prominent urban spaces into gallery quality exhibitions Date and Time // Tuesday, September 20, 2022, 3 - 4:30 PM Location // Sedgwick Library This event will take place in person at Sedgwick Library. Supplies will be provided. New to experienced artists are all welcome! REGISTER HERE! Fully accessible to wheelchairs
ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing accessibility@nypl.org.
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Last Saturday, August 20, 2022, I had my workshop at the @nybg where we painted the food we love and remind us to home and family. Over 50 people stopped by the table, I learned so much about other countries' foods and their traditions. Thank you! Last Spring I painted one of the picnic tables now on display at the New York Botanical Garden. Around the Table: Stories of the Foods we Love, is a celebration of art and science of edible plants. On view from Saturday, June 4, 2022 to Sunday, September 11, 2022. Workshop: Artist Laura Álvarez Fernández traces her roots back to Valencia, Spain in this celebration of Spanish paella, a versatile rice dish. On this afternoon, you are invited to join Laura to design a plate that features your favorite ancestral dish.
Last Spring I painted one of the picnic tables now on display at the New York Botanical Garden. Around the Table: Stories of the Foods we Love, is a celebration of art and science of edible plants. On view from Saturday, June 4, 2022 to Sunday, September 11, 2022. Not only you can visit the garden and check all the amazing tables from the Bronx artists, but you can also join me for the workshop I will be leading by my table: August 20 from 12 to 4pm Enid A. Haupt Conservatory Lawn Artist Laura Álvarez Fernández traces her roots back to Valencia, Spain in this celebration of Spanish paella, a versatile rice dish. On this afternoon, you are invited to join Laura to design a plate that features your favorite ancestral dish.  WHEDco is partnering with the BxArts Factory to host a free series of online career development webinars to help Bronx artists transition to new employment opportunities or launch and grow their businesses during COVID-19. Join our interactive session on Zoom Thursday's in May at 5pm to get real time feedback from the teaching artist. Sign up for one or all three events in this FREE Professional Development Series below: How to Brand Your Art Date: Thursday, May 7, 2020 Time: 5:00pm-6:30pm How to Budget Your Project Date: Thursday, May 14, 2020 Time: 5:00pm-6:30pm How to Create a Web Comic Date: Thursday, May 21, 2020 Time: 5:00pm-6:30pm Register to join interactive session on Zoom or watch on Facebook Live My seminar will be focused on giving artists the fundamentals to create (or develop) their own brand. As an artist you have to become the perfect seller, not only by creating the perfect piece, but by letting everyone know you did it.
Art helps me to overcome the different events that happen in my life. I believe if I could not make art I would have not make it through. Join me to talk about our struggles and create art with them. Let's make out something new from the past, from our grief, from our sorrows. Leave all that in the paper, in the canvas, in the words we write. “We are human bodies made of cells regulated by hormones and chemical balances. Once one of those small things goes wrong, the balance falls apart and it’s really hard to pick it up. I have ART to help me through”. Marianne Gunther, a licensed creative art psychotherapist with nearly thirty years of experience will be joining me for this workshop. One of her joy is guiding others to re-discover their inherent creativity and well being. Space is limited and RSVP is needed. _____________________________________________......_______________________________________ Woman Being: Mundo Interior Art Exhibition On view from March 1 to 30, 2020. Opening reception: Thursday, March 5, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Gallery Hours by appointment request at Laura@lauralvarez.com
This summer I am working with WHEDco to create a Step Street Mural in the Highbridge neighborhood of The Bronx. We have done a couple of outreach events to let the community know this is coming and to gather volunteers to help with the painting process. Right now we are just waiting on some permits but I can already taste the paint!!! ____________ In the past years, some organizations and neighborhoods in the Bronx have started to fight back against the burden of being number 62 out of 62 counties in the health rank of New York. Part of the #Not62 initiative have been the community gardens that have sprung around the borough, promoting healthy eating. One of the issues we face is the food deserts, where you have to travel in order to get fruits and vegetables, and when you find them they are expensive and their quality is not great. These small gardens give the communities an alternative option, growing your own food, and at the same time they create community spaces where you get to know your neighbors and share time with them. This step street mural is an homage to those gardens and at the same time will make fun and colorful the fact that you have to go up and down the stairs, promoting exercise. In this project I want to involve the community gardens inviting them to help in the painting process and also bringing information about what they do and where they are located to get more people to join them. Public art is a great outreach platform. Once we are done we will write the names of the gardens in the steps.
Sometimes there are projects that happen and you don't know how much fun they are going to be until they happen. The preparation for this mural was somehow long and uncertain because of the design. We went through several sketches and I wasn't even sure if the one we went with was what the school wanted. After all that work, my process is always “let it flow... there’s nothing wrong in art” you are working with kids, so whatever ideas you have in your head, most likely won't be what they want to do. I gave them some directions, and some of them were disregarded (like keep the hand prints in the sun) so we incorporated that in the design. I think after all, it ended up looking great. Over 30 kids participated in this community mural during period of 2 hours. They painted and wrote words that school inspired them and we all had an awesome evening.
I've been doing Paint Parties for a while. Last week, a friend asked me to facilitate one for her birthday. She is very creative with her birthday parties and loves painting and crafting. I created a special painting for the event, inspired in the fall, as she requested, I designed a cute warm peacock. Even though they started a little scared, the blank canvas is very intimidating, at the end of the night everyone had a great piece of art to hang in their walls. I am always so proud!!! It is very rewarding to see how they create something from nothing.
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I am a...Graphic Designer, Illustrator, Educator, Community Activist... ARTIST! All Images COPYRIGHT © 2008-2021, are property of Laura Alvarez Fernandez. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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