By Jonathan Morales

2022年6月21日

“What do you see?” Luis Garcia asks the elementary school students assembled in front of one of 囊状态’s campus murals.

一个人，一个学生说。 一条鱼，另一个说。 的手。 水。

“You’re talking about art simply by sharing what you see, and what I want you to think about is not to be intimidated when you go to spaces where you see art,” said Garcia, an 艺术助理教授. “You simply talk about them, and you are not wrong, because it’s what you see and what you think.”

The students, from Washington Elementary School in 萨克拉门托’s Alkali Flats neighborhood, were on campus in early May as part of Garcia’s “Barrio Art in the Community” class, which he taught during the spring semester.

During the course, Garcia’s 囊状态 students learned about the historical and political contexts of what is known as barrio art, while working directly with Washington Elementary students and their families.

The goal, Garcia said, is to teach students how to interact with 萨克拉门托’s diverse communities, learn from them, and develop culturally relevant ways for them to engage with art so that they feel welcomed and valued in artistic and learning spaces.

“I say this from my own experience: You just have to take a different approach if you really want to engage students in art education in communities of color, especially marginalized communities of color,” he said.

The course draws on Garcia’s own experience as a high school art teacher in Los Angeles, previous iterations of barrio art courses at 囊状态, and the legacy of the Royal Chicano Air Force, an art collective founded in 1969 by 囊状态 faculty and students, including Jose Montoya, Ricardo Favela, and Esteban Villa, 最近获得荣誉博士学位. 维拉于今年5月去世，享年91岁。

加西亚说，巴里奥艺术不是指一种特定的艺术流派或风格，而是指艺术的来源：巴里奥，或由边缘化人口组成的社区。

In the art world, barrio art – examples include graffiti and murals – often is viewed separately from other art forms, he said.

“There’s often a reference to fine art, and then there's a reference to folk art,” Garcia said. “To me, why can't those both of those be fine art?”

He said it’s important for people who seek to work with marginalized communities to counter that bifurcated thinking by engaging with them directly to understand their experiences and learn what they have to offer.

在课程中，学生们了解了各种形式的巴里奥艺术，以及当前艺术家如何在巴里奥工作，艺术如何被用作变革的工具，以及边缘化艺术家如何为自己创造空间。

Off campus, 囊状态’s students tutored Washington Elementary students and developed programming such as art and wellness workshops at the nearby Washington Neighborhood Center.

"You just have to take a different approach if you really want to engage students in art education in communities of color, especially marginalized communities of color.” ——路易斯·加西亚

加西亚说，这项工作表明了让学生与他们所服务的社区接触的愿望。 这意味着向他们学习，并利用这些信息开发文化课程和活动，这些社区可以通过看到他们自己或他们的经历反映在他们身上，例如。

“You want to develop your teaching approaches developing and identifying ways to teach in the barrio,” he said. “Barrio art is focused on ways of engaging, connecting, and being relevant to marginalized communities.”

Hector Rodriguez, an 民族研究 major who graduated in May, grew up in South Central Los Angeles, “so when we talk about our barrio or our hood, that’s why barrio art stood out to me, and its emphasis on trying to bring out the community through art.”

Rodriguez was on hand during the Washington Elementary visit, during which the young students visited the University’s invertebrate museum and took in a show at the planetarium. 他计划成为一名社会工作者，这在一定程度上是受到他以前被寄养的经历的启发。 他说，与当地学生一起工作，看到他们的热情是他最喜欢的部分。 虽然罗德里格斯不是艺术家，但他说这段经历给了他意想不到的教训，这对他未来的职业生涯很有用。

“I realized through methods employed in art that art can actually connect with kids and their families,” Rodriguez said. “It opens up pathways for us to communicate with kids.

“This has opened up my eyes for how art education methods can be employed everywhere.”