Creative Capital Announces Spanish-Language Workshops for Artists in New York

New York, NY (August 8, 2018) — Creative Capital announces Taller profesional para artistas (Taller), a free four-month career development program for Spanish-speaking Latinx artists in New York City, made possible by a two-year grant from the New York Community Trust. The program introduces artists of all disciplines to strategic planning and business skills and tools, building the capacity of each artist to reach their creative goals, strengthen their communities, and build thriving careers. Taller will also address the challenges faced by Latinx artists working in multiple cultural and linguistic contexts in New York City, while fostering a supportive peer community of artists advocating for themselves and each other. The program is co-hosted by Casita Maria, and will include workshops at Creative Capital in Lower Manhattan and Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education in the South Bronx taking place from October 2018 to January 2019.

Taller is conducted in Spanish and is open to Spanish-speaking Latinx artists living in the New York City area with priority given to Bronx-based artists (up to 24 applicants will be chosen). Interested artists should read guidelines for eligibility and apply online by September 5, 2018.

“New York City has such a rich and vibrant community of Latinx artists who share Creative Capital’s values of working collaboratively and pushing aesthetic and cultural boundaries,” said Suzy Delvalle, Creative Capital President & Executive Director. “We are so thrilled to partner with Casita Maria and build on the success of previous Taller workshops for a deeper four-month pilot program thanks to the generous support of New York Community Trust, and we plan to expand Taller nationally in the future.”

Taller will also be offered in 2019 in other boroughs; further details will be announced next year. For more information, visit creative-capital.org.

Workshop Leader
Taller was conceived and is led by Creative Capital Awardee Ela Troyano. Troyano is an interdisciplinary artist born in Cuba and based in New York City. Throughout her 35-year career, her films and performances have straddled the worlds of documentary and fiction, installation and live action. She has exhibited at internationally recognized venues including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, and Performance Space 122 in New York; The British Film Institute in London; and the Kino Arsenal in Berlin. Troyano has been engaged in arts activism and arts community engagement since the 1980s. She has created showcases for films and performances in order to bring Latinx, queer, female, bilingual stories to audiences in New York City. Troyano founded and curated the New York Film Festival Downtown, with Tessa Hughes Freeland, from 1984 to 1988. She was founder and curator of La Misma Onda (The Same Wave), a monthly experimental Latinx film and performance series, from 1989 to 1992. She is a founding member of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers and is a Board Member of FABnyc, an organization dedicated to arts and culture in the Lower East Side. Troyano has coached artists since 2001 and has led workshops since 2003, and was instrumental in creating artist point-of-view content for Creative Capital’s Strategic Planning curriculum. She also developed Taller and has presented each workshop since 2010.

There will be additional workshop presenters and guests.

About Casita Maria (Host Partner)
For more than 80 years, Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education has served as a cultural and community anchor for thousands of young people and their families in the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx. As the first and oldest Latino charity in New York City, Casita Maria works with community leaders to highlight the vivid culture and contributions of frequently overlooked artists and performers living right in the area. Casita’s art and education programs build on the neighborhood’s rich cultural legacy, celebrating contemporary artists while educating youth about the power and value of their artistic heritage. Casita produces exhibitions and performances that showcase the community’s unique artistic traditions. As educators, Casita weaves cultural and artistic expression into their after-school and summer programs, inspiring participants to carry the torch forward and make their own contributions to the neighborhood’s rich cultural tapestry.

Taller Funder
This program is supported by The New York Community Trust.

About Creative Capital
Creative Capital supports innovative and adventurous artists across the country through funding, counsel and career development services. Its pioneering venture philanthropy approach helps artists working in all creative disciplines realize their visions and build more sustainable careers. Since 1999, Creative Capital has committed $40 million in project funding and advisory support to 511 projects representing 642 artists and has worked with more than 18,000 artists in over 800 creative communities across the country. Learn more at creative-capital.org.

Creative Capital receives major support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Lambent Foundation, Toby Devan Lewis, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, New York Community Trust, William K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation, Muriel Pollia Foundation, Jane Brown and Neil Didriksen, Paige West, Stephen Reily and Emily Bingham, The Theo Westenberger Estate, and more than 100 other institutional and individual donors.

Press Contact
Michael Gibbons
Director of Marketing & Communications, Creative Capital
[email protected]