Cultivating Joy internship
This spring, ARTS is working with the California Arts Council in partnership with the State legislature, developed by California Creative Corps for the Far South/Border North: Artists and Cultural Practitioners in Community (FSBN) project. “The program offers an essential platform for guiding public messaging campaigns to cultivate awareness, social cohesion, and connectivity, particularly in the region's most impacted communities, contributing to health equity.”
Sheena Rae Dowling (Teaching Artist), Anna Mia Ruiz (Program Coordinator), and our “Cultivating Joy” Interns
ARTS collaboration with the FSBN project provided space, materials, and opportunities for youth involvement for 10 FSBN grantee recipients. Artist Thelma de Castro utilized the ARTS Center as a space to workshop their upcoming performance “Where We Lay Our Sorrows Down” as part of the artists project and commissioned ARTS youth participants to design and build a soundscape and puppets embodying nature’s cycles, from seed to seedling, growth and decay, and back to seed.
Youth Artists at Work
“Soundscape and puppets embodying nature’s cycles, from seed to seedling, growth and decay, and back to seed.”
The play will feature the work from Community ARTS and ARTS 4 Justice youth participants: Brandon, Melina, Melany, Irineo, Fernando and Yul taught by our ARTS Teaching Artists: Sheena Rae Dowling (visual arts) and Pablo Dodero (sound design.) This month, ARTS hosted a workshop performance of the play where we got to catch the puppets and soundscape in action in front of a live audience.
Building the puppets from start to finish
Melany (Community ARTS - Sound Collage)
This internship offers young artists a glimpse into the world of theater and stage design. Each participant not only gains valuable experience but also receives a stipend for completing the internship and commission for their work.
The artists were tasked with capturing nature's cycles— from seed to seedling, growth, decay, and back to seed— in their puppet designs. The play, crafted by de Castro in collaboration with San Diego Writers Ink through community writing workshops, delves into themes of death, grief, and healing through nature. It draws inspiration from community gardeners, neighborhoods, cultures, and personal experiences, aiming to spark dialogue and reflection on our connection with the natural world.
The young artists cherished the experience and thrived on the challenge of crafting functional puppets and creating lifelike sounds for the play. Yul from Community ARTS - Digital Sculpture shared their excitement about bringing a flower puppet to life and giving it a realistic touch of decay. “I liked the part where I figured out how to make the flower look as if its falling by itself. It was also interesting to attempt to make an alive-looking flower look dead (through painting)" Looking ahead, we aspire to provide more opportunities like this, where youth in our programs can be compensated for their creativity and gain real-world experience as professional artists.
I liked the part where I figured out how to make the flower look as if its falling by itself. It was also interesting to attempt to make an alive-looking flower look dead (through painting)
Yul (Community ARTS - Digital Sculpture)
