South Gate Museum will always have a special place in my heart. In the depths of 2020 when I was laid off from both of my jobs and with no kind of job security in sight, they created opportunities for me to teach workshops and get back to business. I had recently taught a few step-by-step painting workshops for elementary students and they needed programming to entertain the South Gate community during the scariest peak of the pandemic. A few connected dots later and a 12 workshop series sprung up through the winter holiday season.

The classes and materials were free, and I made friends with not only the students but some of their parents as well. One parent even tracked me down in the spring to teach some art workshops for her church youth group. The experience came full-circle when I got to bring my ArtworxLA high school students as assistants to help me run a free pour-paint station for the South Gate community at the closing reception of Cuídate, the South Gate Museum’s first major curatorial work.

Within an hour my two students had full control of the booth and we were happy to create over 50 works with the community that day. A big ‘Gracias!’ to my friend Marissa for hiring me, the South Gate community for putting me back to work, and all of SELA for being so warm and receptive during turbulent times. Lo agradezco!