Gabi Estrada

Class of 2021
Sociology & Studio Art
Ricardo Levins Morales Art Studio & CLUES

(they/them/theirs)

The general theme I sought to explore with my Chuck Green fellowship was in the area of community arts, specifically using arts for social change. Through professors I knew at Macalester and some research of my own, I was connected to artists and activists Ricardo Levins Morales and Aaron Johnson-Ortiz. Ricardo has been doing work around this subject for many years in the Twin Cities so I thought it could be a good opportunity to gain more insight on this subject. Aaron has also had experience working within this field in the Twin Cities so I was also interested in working beside him at CLUES St. Paul and engaging more specifically with the Latinx community there. I chose to work at both sites because I believed that the work would complement each other very well and deepen my understanding of community arts in the Twin Cities from different perspectives.

Working with Ricardo Levins Morales was an incredibly gratifying experience that helped me grow my knowledge in community organizing and art. The project that took up the bulk of my dedication during my fellowship was assisting him in curating an art exhibit commemorating his 50 year anniversary as an artist. This project required me to develop an archiving system for his extensive collection of artwork, create different events to help engage the community with the exhibit and correspond with community partners supporting the exhibit, as well as a number of other tasks.

At CLUES, Comunidades Latinas Unidas en Servicio, I was able to conduct my fellowship at a predominantly Latinx workplace that worked with the Latinx community of East Side St. Paul. With them, I led a number of different art classes for their youth, staff, and ELL students. Additionally, I spent a large portion of my fellowship helping curate a Latinx community arts gallery for CLUES’ new gallery space. These opportunities allowed me to meet many Twin Cities-based Latinx artists and engage with the communities I would like to work with in the future in an artistic capacity.