Events

Summer Art Exhibit (June 8 – August 2024)

IMPACT: Works by Kathy Willcuts Garcia, Steven Garcia, Taté Garcia

In winter and spring of 2024, ArtReach San Diego produced a series of free art workshops in collaboration with the Southern California American Indian Resource Center, Inc. (SCAIR) to create free opportunities for the Native community to learn from artists and mentors within their community. With the goal of promoting intergenerational learning, these workshops were led by practicing artists, cultural-bearers and youth.  Kathy Willcuts Garcia, Steven Garcia and Taté Garcia led meaningful visual art workshops that focused on traditional and contemporary practices. Each workshop highlighted elements of community building, cultural education and contemporary issues, inspired by the teaching artists’ individual practice, activism and background. Participants engaged with these themes through collaborative Drum Making, Parfleche Bag making and Acrylic Painting visual art workshops.

In celebration of all the artists who participated this spring, “Impact” highlights the community and showcases the diverse artistic practices of the teaching artists.

When: Wednesday, July 10 | 6-7 PM
Where: Grossmont Healthcare District’s Health & Wellness Library (9001 Wakarusa St. La Mesa, CA 91942)
RSVP: Call 619.825.5010, email library@grossmonthealthcare.org, or visit us in person to let us know you’re attending.

Kathy A. Willcuts Garcia is a Cultural Bearer/ Cultural Educator, Artist and Northern Traditional Dancer based in Lemon Grove, CA. She is Lakota and an enrolled member of Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, also of European descent- Scottish, Irish & French. She creates Jewelry with intention and works with natural gemstones for their healing qualities, inspired by Lakota tribal traditions. Kathy is also an herbalist and gardener and has worked with youth in community gardens, taught youth cultural art, spirituality, sacred tobacco teachings and meditation for over ten years.

“As a tribal member that has been displaced by the taking of tribal land of my ancestors to the forced assimilation of both my parents through the government boarding schools to the Relocation Act, it is important for me to know who I am even though I may be 1,400 miles away from my tribe & tribal lands.

My parents helped me to keep my cultural identity by traveling home frequently to our reservations &  pow wows, knowing who my family is, tribal relationships, cultural teachings, ceremonies, foods, arts and crafts, and also attending local pow wows in Los Angeles with other families that were affected by the Relocation Act.

We also attended other cultural events outside our tribal ways which helped us learn about other customs which helped expand our cultural knowledge outside ourselves.

In understanding how important cultural identity is and how it affected me, I now mentor youth as a Cultural Educator to help indigenous youth stay connected to their roots, tribal identity, relationships with family and community.  Also in connection with people outside of our tribal identities as I believe in our Lakota spiritual prayer “Mitakuye Oyasin “, which means “we are all related”.  As Humans we are all one family which also includes all Creation.”

Steven Garcia

Steven Garcia is a multimedia artist based in Lemon Grove, California and part of the Tongva, Apache, Yaqui tribes.  As a multimedia artist, Garcia has also worked in mural and landmark art such as the “Lips” public art piece in Lemon Grove. He is also a cultural educator, actor, musician, storyteller and traditional dancer in Men’s Northern traditional style and an Eagle dancer.

“As indigenous people like all others, we have always been creative! Art is a reflection of life surrounding ourselves and the community with what we feel is our way’s and what we would want to share with the next generations. To pass on the heart breath that was given to us by our mother.”

Taté Garcia

Taté Garcia is a 23-year-old Lakota & Tongva resident of unceded Kumeyaay Territory (San Diego area). They are an acrylic and oil painter, writer, beadworker, and fancy shawl dancer. Raised in a family and cultures heavily involved with art, they pursued different creative forms and mediums continuing through college and beyond, with the support of community at the heart of Taté’s continued practice of the arts. They aim to use their knowledge and use of certain art styles in reverence of the mental, emotional, and spiritual needs or questions of community.

“My artistic process centers reflections on human values and hopes, and finding multiple ways of looking at things as well as methods of reaching goals. By interpreting these on a personal and communal level through workshops, I aim for participants to gain a holistic experience of what potential an art process can hold for them so that they develop a stronger creative ideology by looking for inspiration all around them.”