Glenna Avila is the Wallis Annenberg director of the  California Institute of the Arts Community Arts Partnership (CAP) in Valencia, CA. She is an artist, educator, and arts administrator, dedicated to the arts, young people, and communities. She has served as CAP's director since 1991. The CAP program is a co-curricular program of the college and encompasses 55 distinct youth arts education programs located in 60 diverse neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles County in partnership with 45 public schools, community-based organizations and social service agencies; employing 60 CalArts faculty artists, 50 CalArts alumni artists, and 300 CalArts student artists as instructors; and creating innovative, in-depth arts education programs for 10,000 youth ages 6-18 annually. In 2004, the CAP program received the Coming Up Taller Award, the highest national honor for youth arts education programs. Before coming to CalArts, she held a variety of positions with the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, including director of the Los Angeles Murals Program, director of the McGroarty Art Center, and director of the Los Angeles Photography Center. For thirteen years she was a supervisor in the Summer Youth Employment Program through the U.S. Department of Labor, teaching and providing hundreds of jobs in the arts for low-income youth ages 14-21. She has painted over 75 community murals throughout Los Angeles, the majority of which are collaborations with youth and their communities, and has exhibited her work at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Armand Hammer Museum, Laguna Art Museum, among others. She was one of 10 artists commissioned by the Olympic Organizing Committee to paint a mural on the freeway in downtown Los Angeles for the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival—entitled “L.A. Freeway Kids,” a tribute to the youth of Los Angeles.
 

Paul Babcock is president and chief operating officer of MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis. One of the world’s leading community music schools, MacPhail serves more than 9,000 students of all ages each year on three campuses and through 66 partnerships with other arts organizations, public schools, social service agencies and healthcare organizations. In 2010, MacPhail established a teen advisory council, MacTAC, to empower teens through an open forum and exchange of ideas, to give teens a say in the development of MacPhail’s programs, increase teen participation and enrollment, and enlighten them about giving back to the community. Currently, MacPhail’s teen advisors—a diverse group of young people from throughout the Twin Cities—are providing input on the development of the institution’s new website and physical spaces, reviewing programmatic offerings and brainstorming new classes, and developing ideas for social media initiatives. Paul credits MacTAC with helping MacPhail better engage today’s youth in music offerings that are relevant to their lives. Above and beyond his leadership duties, Paul is active as an instructor and performer. In January 1996, he formed the acclaimed student percussion ensemble Rimshots! and has since recorded three CDs, performed over 400 concerts, toured France, Boston and Chicago, and has been featured on NPR’s “From the Top.”

Jon Hinojosa is the artistic/executive director of SAY Si, a multidisciplinary arts program for high school and middle school students in San Antonio, TX. He received his bachelor of fine arts degree in painting from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Jon is a 2007 fellow in the executive program for Nonprofit Leaders in the Arts, a joint program of National Arts Strategies and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Under his leadership, SAY Sí was the recipient of the 2002 Coming Up Taller award, presented by the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities and the NEA. The award recognizes excellence in community-based, after-school arts and humanities programs that demonstrate the power of these disciplines to encourage young people’s creativity. Jon is also a producing and exhibiting visual artist, and the 2004 Ford Salute to Education honoree in the arts category for his commitment to San Antonio’s youth. He is a founding member and past co-chair of the San Antonio Arts in Education Task Force and a founding member and past co-chair and of the Cultural Alliance of San Antonio, a consortium of San Antonio’s cultural arts directors.

Maria Jimenez-Torres is the interim executive director of Plaza de la Raza Cultural Center for the Arts & Education in East Los Angeles. She has served the community of East LA for over 20 years. At the age of nineteen, she was assistant director of the School of Performing and Visual Arts at Plaza de la Raza and became the education director in 2003. She has focused her efforts on cultural arts education and has designed and maintained programs that include 100 year-round arts classes and workshops for 600 youth per quarter in theater, dance, music and visual arts, taught by Los Angeles artists and performers. Maria has worked in partnership with the CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP) program for the past 22 years, co-designing and implementing one of the premiere youth theater programs in the country. Twenty-two original plays have been created in this program, with well-known playwrights, faculty, students, and alumni from CalArts, thousands of teenage participants, and an army of parent volunteers. The plays are produced each Spring and presented to standing-room-only audiences at the Margo Albert Theater at Plaza de la Raza and at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) in downtown Los Angeles. Maria has coordinated dozens of public festivals for youth and families, organized programs to teach mariachi and folklorico dancing, and initiated youth rock and salsa bands. She has years of expertise in recruiting and engaging youth participants in after-school visual and performing arts programs, and in creating community with students, artists, parents, and the public.

H. Mark Smith is the YouthReach program manager at the Massachusetts Cultural Council, where he has been since 1996. YouthReach is recognized nationally as an incubator for highly effective community arts programs for vulnerable young people. Smith has been a consultant to the Delaware Division of the Arts and the Delaware Boys & Girls Clubs, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and the Connecticut Commission for Children, the Ohio Arts Council, the Colorado Arts Council, the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services, the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, and the National Guild for Community Arts Education. Smith holds a B.S. in elementary education and an M.A. in directing. He was executive director of the Loon and Heron Theatre, a theater for young people based in Brookline, MA.
 

Youth coaches and their assistants from The HeArt Project in Los Angeles, CA will help guide our discussions. The teen coaches have all participated in The HeArt Project’s advanced leadership program where they network, collaborate and learn life skills and receive an introduction to LA’s creative careers.

Youth Coaches

My name is Alfredo Alvarado. I’m fifteen years old and I attend Frida Kahlo High School. I have attended an after-school residency with The HeArt Project at Otis Fashion College of Design. We designed and created our very own shirts and presented them at the Bootleg Theater. In the summer, I went to UCLA to take a summer course in audio and video design. This fall, I took another HeArt Project class in theater where we explored our hyphenated identity. In December, I exhibited in an art show where I showed my shirts I created in the Otis fashion residency.

My name is Martha Caselis. I am twenty years old and I recently graduated from C.R.C.D. Academy. I am currently attending Los Angeles Trade Technical College, and am the alumni representative on The HeArt Project board. I am a student who at the age of sixteen was pushed out of a regular high school due to not having enough credits so transferred to a continuation school that offered art classes with The HeArt Project. When I started to take part in these art classes, things changed. I had a low self-esteem and I didn't know many people. My first session started off by building trust with my classmates. Trust is not something easy to build yet I was able to trust these students whom I didn't know. I can honestly say these art classes made me become more involved and encouraged me to enjoy school. What I enjoyed the most was that at the end of each 10-week session we would meet up with other schools at different locations such as the Dorothy Chandler, House of Blues, and even the Music Center. I loved the fact that we shared our artwork with different schools. I never had the courage to speak in front of so many people and thanks to education through the arts I feel more confident and relaxed to do so.

My name is Carlos Gomez and I am a graduate of Central High School, Mar Vista. During high school, I participated in many arts workshops through The HeArt Project, and was introduced to an after-school theater program at the Bootleg Theater. The HeArt Project gave me a scholarship to attend a summer program at UCLA in their theater/dance intensive, and a writing workshop at Art Center’s Saturday High. I also performed with LA’s Cornerstone Theater, and am a member of the organization Street Poets. I make my own music, play the piano, and currently work at Community Rights Campaign.

My name is Kitty. I am 18 years old and have been a student at Central High’s All People’s Christian Center for about one year now. I like to do artsy stuff, learn languages (especially Japanese) and sew. Through The HeArt Project, I have worked with painters, dancers, designers and other awesome people and been able to show my work at UCLA, the Autry National Center, the LA Opera, and the House of Blues (my favorite). I’ve done the fashion residency for three years (the last two years as the teaching assistant). Last summer, The HeArt Project sent me to Otis Fashion College of Design for a four-week intensive in drawing and painting in anime style, and the summer before, to a drawing program at UCLA. I wouldn’t be in school if it wasn’t for the arts. Art is what has engaged me in school.

My name is Gerson Lopez. I am a student at Central High School, Mar Vista and hoping to graduate this year. I love working with my community and for them. I like to help out younger kids and youth my age on problems they are going through. I have learned how to meditate from pain and stress. I have worked with The HeArt project for about three years. I've met good people and worked with cool people including the artist Man One at his gallery Crewest. I like to make art with paint and I love to write poems. I have been in art shows and galleries like the Autry National Center, the LA Art Walk, and at The Getty Villa. My motivation in life is to make my mom and dad, brothers and sister happy and to be the best I can.

My name is Blanca Martinez and I am a high school senior at Pueblo de Los Angeles High School. I am an active participant of The HeArt Project, through which I have taken numerous art classes, including a fashion design class.This past summer, I received a scholarship to UCLA's Summer Institute to study photography and this fall, got a scholarship to Art Center's Saturday High where I continued to study photography. I am an avid reader and a film aficionado.
 

Coaching Assistants

Sol Alvarez is the advanced programs manager for student services at The HeArt Project. Alvarez joined The HeArt Project as a workshop coordinator in 2003 and has been promoted over the years to her current position, supporting students in the organization’s advanced programs. She has exhibited her art since the age of sixteen at institutions ranging from the Long Beach Museum of Art, Self-Help Graphics, and the Tropico de Nopal gallery. She spent her childhood in art camps, workshops, and festivals; and watching her mother perform, thereby exposing her to the multiplicity of art media. Her experiences working with art institutions such as The Social and Public Arts Resource Center, Community Arts Resources, The Armory Center for the Arts, ARTScorpsLA and The HeArt Project have opened the door for opportunities and inspiration.

Cynthia Campoy Brophy is the executive director and founder of The HeArt Project. She began the program 20 years ago by bringing arts workshops to one teen community center; the organization now brings its yearlong program to 25 continuation high schools throughout LA County, including the Hollywood Media Arts Academy, the first arts high school in the region for alternative education youth. Prior to founding The HeArt Project, she was publicist for The Museum of Contemporary Art, is a graduate of the Coro Southern California Arts Leadership Fellows program, the recipient of the 1997 Vision Award and was a fellow with the Eureka Foundation. She served as a member of the Los Angeles County Arts Education Program Advisory Group, attended the Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders in the Arts, was appointed by the Speaker of the California State Assembly to serve on the Board of the California Cultural and Historical Endowment. She currently serves on the board of directors for Arts for LA, an arts advocacy non-profit.

The HeArt Project

The HeArt Project (HP) was founded in 1992 to help fill the void in arts education among L.A. inner city youth. In the 20 years since, HP has steadily expanded to serve 650 students at 25 alternative high school sites in three school districts. As its mission, HP combats the epidemic high school dropout crisis with a long-term, sequential arts program offering students a pursuable life path that inspires them to stay in school, evolve as unique individuals and flourish as creative adults. HP's theory of change is predicated on a long-term approach to programs and support that favors the development of authentic relationships with youth over time. The HeArt Project leverages the resources and expertise of its partners – working artists and creative professionals, cultural centers, and colleges/universities – to offer a four-step “ladder” of increasingly advanced arts opportunities to youth who otherwise would have no arts in their education. In 2010, HP extended its partnership with the L.A. County Office of Education to jointly establish the Hollywood Media Arts Academy, the first institution of its kind in the region to provide focused arts education and core subject instruction to alternative education high school students.