Get ready for an artistic adventure with Abigail Gómez, the force behind Arte Libre VA! Explore the fusion of STEM and the arts, discover the magic of children's books that celebrate culture, and learn how public art is shaping communities. A dynamic professor at Shenandoah University and the visionary executive director of Arte Libre VA, Abi shares her remarkable journey into teaching and her unwavering passion for the arts, emphasizing the power of creativity in higher education. Discover how Arte Libre VA is making arts education accessible to underserved youth, creating a sense of community through public art. Abi also delves into the vibrant celebration of Dia de los Muertos (you're invited to join the fun in Winchester on Nov. 2). Join us for an inspiring conversation that explores the transformative potential of art, cultural diversity, and the promise of growth.
Read the full show notes, visit the website, and check out my on-demand virtual course. Continue the adventure at LinkedIn or Instagram.
*Disclosure: I am a Bookshop.org. affiliate.
Get ready for an artistic adventure with Abigail Gómez, the force behind Arte Libre VA! Explore the fusion of STEM and the arts, discover the magic of children's books that celebrate culture, and learn how public art is shaping communities. A dynamic professor at Shenandoah University and the visionary executive director of Arte Libre VA, Abi shares her remarkable journey into teaching and her unwavering passion for the arts, emphasizing the power of creativity in higher education. Discover how Arte Libre VA is making arts education accessible to underserved youth, creating a sense of community through public art. Abi also delves into the vibrant celebration of Dia de los Muertos (you're invited to join the fun in Winchester on Nov. 2). Join us for an inspiring conversation that explores the transformative potential of art, cultural diversity, and the promise of growth.
Read the full show notes, visit the website, and check out my on-demand virtual course. Continue the adventure at LinkedIn or Instagram.
*Disclosure: I am a Bookshop.org. affiliate.
[00:01] Dr. Diane: Wonder, curiosity, connection. Where will your adventures take you?
I'm Dr. Diane, and thank you for joining me on today's episode of Adventures in Learning. So, welcome to the Adventures in Learning podcast. As we gear up for a Spooktacular Halloween and Day of the Dead, we have a very special guest with us today. We have a dear friend of mine, Abigail Gómez. She is a professor at Shenandoah University, but she is also the executive director of Arte Libre. Abi, welcome to the show. I'm so happy we finally were able to get you on and just in time for Spooky season.
[00:46] Abi: Yes. Thank you so much for having me on your podcast. I'm so excited to finally have our schedules align and be able to join you here.
[00:55] Dr. Diane: Well, you are one busy lady. And so before we kind of get into the heart of the things that you've got coming up in this next week, tell us a little bit about Abi. Let's hear about your adventures in learning. How did you get to where you are today? I mean, you're kind of a one woman band. You are constantly making our world more beautiful. You are teaching a full load of college students, and you run your own nonprofit. How did you get there?
[01:23] Abi: Thank you. Yeah, it's sometimes tireless work, but everything that's related to the arts I want to help, support and really be a part of, especially in the community. So I came to teaching through a pretty nontraditional path. I was not an education major. I've never taken courses on how to teach people, but it's something that luckily has come to me pretty intuitively. I started volunteering to teach through different programs like the Boys and Girls Club for schools and programs that had no art, just to be able to bring that to the students, to the youth, and share it. And from there, job opportunities opened up. I taught for a homeschool consortium for a little while, taught for the Independent School of Winchester, and then was able to start teaching at Shenandoah. My joy, the sweet spot for teaching for me is definitely in higher education. I think there's just so many possibilities working with these young adults and helping to encourage them in their creativity. It's really the place that I want to be, and I'm still able to teach all the ages and even the littles through Arte Libre VA. Our mission is to empower youth of color through equitable access to the arts, and I provide programming to Fremont Street Nursery. So I just had a painting session this morning with the twos there, and we'll get to work with the threes and the fours later this week. So I have even the tiniest humans, and I teach all the way through adults, facilitate workshops for everybody to be able to participate, and it's really a beautiful thing.
[03:18] Dr. Diane: So let's talk for a moment about Arte Libre, because I know that that has been sort of your heart child for a while. What does your nonprofit do? Give us sort of a layout of how you've grown in the last couple of years as well.
[03:33] Abi: Yeah. So we got our 501(c)3 just before the Pandemic started, so all of our initial plans had to shift and pivot, using these terms that we've become so familiar with. And we were able to provide free art kits to youth in need. Throughout the first year of the Pandemic, we put out over 1000 art kits and got them in the hands of young people, which was a really exciting achievement. And ever since then, we've been partnering with organizations that serve youth, so we don't have to duplicate or try to start from scratch, creating our audiences. So we focus on youth of color, youth from low socioeconomic status and things like that to be able to make sure that there's access. So, a couple of things with our nonprofit, we go to the youth. We don't have a brick and mortar location. So part of our quest for equity is addressing this geographical access challenge in our community. We don't have reliable public transportation here, and everything really is accessible only by car. So we're bringing the arts experience and the arts workshops to youth to our partner locations, such as the Hanley Regional Public Library System. We've worked with Kids Club before. We work at Fremont. Like I mentioned, we work with the Winchester Public Schools, Frederick County Basic Rec program. So really trying to work through the existing structures to provide youth access to the arts.
[05:16] Dr. Diane: I know, for me, I know that you helped to change my journey. I had thought of things in terms of STEM, and you were a huge advocate for the A and making it STEAM. And if you don't know what the A in STEAM is, it's the arts. So you've got science, technology, arts, engineering, and math. I was wondering if you could share an example of how you might take something that was traditionally STEM based and add that arts component to enrich it. And as you said, provide equity and access in ways that maybe we don't think about normally.
[05:51] Abi: Absolutely. I think one of the examples we can talk about are the programs that you and I have collaborated on before together. Whether it's bringing professional development opportunities or even searching through inspiration from children's picture books to find those inspirations and making those connections. And even if the subject and content revolves around an environmental cause, including sciences or math. I know that we've done projects before where the story involved efforts of recycling and environmentalism and bringing those components, those materials that are created and necessary for a lot of the STEM fields and projects and using those in the arts and being able to take these things and materials and apply them in a different way and look at them a little bit differently, to create something beautiful from it. We have examples of using recycled plastics to create bags and mats and even tapestries, wearable art in that way. We always apply the sciences and math in creating art anyway, whether it's measuring grids to make sure that your image is going to look right on a mural, or whether it is understanding the nature of pigments and those chemical reactions to create different colors. It all integrates so beautifully. And you almost can't separate one from the other. You can't separate the STEM fields from the arts or art from science and math and technology.
[07:37] Dr. Diane: That makes so much sense to me. And as you were talking, I was thinking about children's literature. I've got some of the books you and I have talked about behind me right now. You were talking about recycling and I know we had used Ada's Violin as one of the books that we've worked with; Maybe Something Beautiful by Rafael Lopez, the idea of community and collaboration and beautifying where you live. You had another one that I remember you really loved that you incorporated into weaving. And the title is escaping me right now. Do you remember?
[08:09] Abi: I think it was called Rainbow Weaver.
[08:11] Dr. Diane: Yes, that's it. It was Rainbow Weaver. And I just recently discovered a book that I was thinking about today, because Steve Spangler is doing a professional development next week and had asked me to put together some books for teachers thinking about Halloween and Day of the Dead as well and sort of connecting them, as you said, to the science and the math part of it. And I found this brand new book that I'm absolutely in love with that I'm actually going to go grab and bring up close for you. Actually, I have two of them I'm going to bring up close for you. So the first one is Skeletown and it's Sí. ¡No!. And I love this because it's all cause and effect, and I love the choice of the colors in the art. And so everything starts with the Sí or the ¡No!., and you get something that looks like it's going to be a Sí and then on the next page it turns out to be a ¡No!. And so they're anticipating sort of cause and effect all the way through. And I found myself thinking this would be such a fun thing to do with kids in terms of having them figure out what panels you would create. You could do your own graphic format and think about your yes and your no and sort of how you would take something that looks like a yes and turn it into a no, or conversely, something that looks like a no and how would you turn it into a yes. So I really loved that one. And then the other one I just discovered is If Your Babysitter Is a Bruja. And I fell in love with this concept of the kid has the babysitter who comes, who the child is absolutely convinced is a witch. And it's Halloween, and there are all these clues that say, maybe it's a witch, maybe it's not, and eventually the child joins the club. But they're both just really darling books that provide so much scope for the imagination, I think. And that's one of the things that you've always inspired me to think about, is how can we take something that we've always done and look deeper and find another way to look at it? And so I really appreciate that.
[10:37] Abi: Yeah, that's fantastic. And I love these children's books that integrate Spanish language, even if they're not completely in Spanish, and I think normalizing that is a really smart thing to do, especially at these younger ages.
[10:52] Dr. Diane: Are there other books that you've discovered that you love to use when you're working with kids?
[10:59] Abi: There's one. So my son Xavier is almost six and in kindergarten.
[11:04] Dr. Diane: How is that possible?
[11:06] Abi: I know it happens so quickly, but it's really been this fun journey. As he is loving books and learning to read and starting his literacy journey, I've been able to benefit from the books that he has, things that interest him, what he connects with. And it's sort of this real time test subject a little bit for these different books and ideas that I have stemming from them. But one of his favorite books right now is called Zombies Don't Eat Vegetables. And this is another book that integrates vocabulary and words in Spanish. And just it's not translated, but it's just a little bit of vocabulary that really normalizes this sort of spanglish that a lot of us find ourselves using from day to day. And the story is that Mo, this one little boy zombie, just does not like zombie food. And he doesn't like to eat toes or fingers or anything like that. And he loves vegetables, and his parents think vegetables are so disgusting and they can't imagine that they have a zombie son that doesn't fall into this zombie culinary category. But it's really interesting, and it also provides this great launching point to talk about different foods from different cultures. And it's okay if we don't like something, and it's okay if somebody else does like it and provides, again, a beautiful opportunity to think about art applications with that, whether you're drawing food, imagining something. And what I really like doing is getting out playdoh and things and imagining, like, what would you create if you were a zombie, or what would you create to eat if you didn't like zombie food? That sort of thing.
[13:00] Dr. Diane: I love that. And as you're talking, I could even see adding on that community garden aspect where you use the math to measure it and figure out how big is your plot going to be, how far apart do you need to plant the vegetables, what are you going to plant? And you go through the process of cultivating and then you get to try the things that our reluctant zombie would prefer to eat. And so you could actually connect really tangibly to the book as well. So I love the fact that it lends itself to the art and to the science, and you could connect to your plants and vegetables unit as well.
[13:43] SPONSOR AD
[15:03] Dr. Diane: So let's talk about the really cool stuff you've got coming up. Next week's going to be a very busy or I guess in the coming weeks, it's going to be a very busy time for you. What are some of the really cool plans you have?
[15:17] Abi: So one of the biggest events that I have throughout the year is Dia de los Muertos Celebration. So this I started two years ago. This will be the third year that we've done it at Shenandoah University with my FYS class, the first year seminar. And we wanted to create some sort of collaborative opportunity for the entire class to engage in creating or contributing to a piece of public art. My class is called The Power of Public Art. So we explore that and how it applies to social justice and things like that. So my student mentor at the time, Elias Aguirre, is from Mexico, so my interest in Mexican and Latin American culture, along with his lived experiences, led us to hosting a very spur at the moment Dia de los Muertos celebration, where we were able to engage with student musicians here at the university. And my class created the art elements of the ofrenda, which is the altar and different things like that. And it was very successful for how few weeks we had to plan it and pull it off. So last year we were able to create an event with much more planning and much more intention, and we actually took it off campus and brought it to the heart of the Winchester community. We hosted it at the Taylor Pavilion on the Old Town Walking Mall and we were able to engage with folkloric dancers from Oaxaca and from some other states in Mexico who were able to bring their gifts of dance and theater to the event. We were able to work with many more musicians at Shenandoah and a conductor. So we had almost 20 musicians and singers cantantes out there just celebrating and sharing their cultural traditions. We had pan de animas, which are special sweet breads that are very specific to this particular cultural celebration that were donated and created by Mexican stores and bakers here in the area. So we're really building these bridges and sharing this beautiful cultural celebration not just within the Mexican community, but the Latin American community and the greater community in Winchester. So it's been a beautiful educational opportunity, a chance for people to share their culture and share their gifts and for us to all gather and celebrate. And even though the focus is on loved ones that we've lost, those are the photos that are added to the ofrenda. It is a joyful occasion. It's not what we oftentimes associate with death and loss in Western culture, where it's a somber and very sad and introspective time. But this is rather a chance to celebrate the fact that these people who we loved and lost are still remembered and we still hold them with joy in our hearts and our souls. So it's really a special and beautiful, vibrant celebration. And I do have some pictures of that, if you would like me.
[18:52] Dr. Diane: Yeah, share some and tell us a little bit about it. And as you're pulling those up, if folks are listening from the Winchester or Northern Virginia area and would like to be a part of it, can you give them some information about the where and the when for this year?
[19:07] Abi: Yes, absolutely. Everyone is invited. This is a free public event. It'll be hosted at the Taylor Pavilion on the Old Town Walking Mall in Winchester, Virginia. And if we happen to encounter horrible weather, if it's raining and very cold, our backup location will be on Shenandoah University campus at the Brand Student Center. So this is an example of a lot of the artwork that was created for the ofrenda. So this ofrenda, or altar is sort of the visual centerpiece of these celebrations. The elements on it incorporated are very specific and very symbolic and all mean different things about the celebration in this journey. So these artistic elements, including the paper flowers, the butterflies, the Calaveras that are included, were all sculpted and created by my students and other students at Shenandoah. Yeah. So we start building this around 08:00 a.m.. The day of the event. And this is all put up and taken down in one day because this is out in a very public space and we want to make sure that our items and our offerings are protected and that none of this paper gets other places. But the actual event itself happens at night when we use these candles and the illumination, and that's when everything really starts. So these photos were taken of the event last year, and you can see the dancers had beautiful costumes. They incorporate elements of light and color in their performances as well. This is a better view of the ofrenda itself. And one of the common repetitive themes here are the Marigold flowers or cempasuchil and the Nhawadal language. So those are very symbolic and important. They have a very strong scent, which is known to draw the spirits of our loved ones lost back to the altars and also represents the earth. And here you can see the dancers mid routine. The dancers and the elements that they bring, whether it's the Marigolds fruit, like pineapples, also have very symbolic meanings. The different dresses and costumes represent different areas around Mexico, different states.
[22:08] Dr. Diane: Well, and the makeup is just phenomenal as you look at the faces of the dancers and you can see the very beautifully defined skulls. And I'm assuming that there's symbolism and deliberation in those choices as well.
[22:24] Abi: Yeah, absolutely. And this is something that I share with students, and it's also probably a good PSA to remember, is that other people's cultures are not costumes. So as we approach the Halloween season, we do want to make sure to differentiate between Di los Muertos and Halloween. It is not the same thing. And unless you're Mexican, it is inappropriate to paint your face like one of these calaveras or skulls that you see here. This is culturally significant. And while the Mexican people as a whole share this rich cultural tradition with joy and with pleasure, there is sort of a line of respect that needs to be maintained. So if you are not of Mexican descent, if you do not belong to that culture, it is not appropriate to paint your face up like somebody you would see at a Dia de los Muertos celebration.
[23:24] Dr. Diane: That's a really good PSA. As we come into the Halloween season, you're also working on a number of other public art activities. You referenced that you're working on public art with your students and with Arte Libre. Can you share some examples of why public art is important and what you're engaged in right now?
[23:45] Abi: Absolutely. I believe that public art is essential to create a sense of community, a sense of connection, a sense of autonomy and place making for people who live in any particular area. And that's what we use public art for, is to again build bridges, to create more connection within the community and not just to beautify the space, which is also sort of a positive byproduct of these projects. I'll share my screen again. One of the projects that has been ongoing over the past couple of years with Arte Libre VA have been these parking space murals. We wanted to bring art again out into the streets, right in front of people. And in the Old Town district, it can be challenging to paint a lot of the buildings. So as we're seeing murals start to materialize on some of the walls, we hope to be able to increase that presence and also allow access to emerging and BIPOC artists. So we pulled out a couple of calls for entry for emerging artists to be able to participate in this parking space mural program. And we've had folks selected who are as young, I think our youngest was around twelve years old, and then through adults in their 60s. So just a beautiful opportunity to allow creatives in our area to share their gifts and their visions with our community.
[25:25] Dr. Diane: And it's absolutely gorgeous. There have been so many beautiful parking spaces. I love going downtown and seeing them as I'm parking. I love the dragon here. And I'm assuming that's Kelsey.
[25:39] Abi: It is Kelsey. Camacho. Yeah. She is one of our board members at Arte Libre VA, and an illustrator, and created this beautiful, beautiful mural to share her dragon with the community, too.
[25:56] Dr. Diane: And I know there's also a beautiful butterfly on the downtown mall, which is the Arte Libre symbol. Why a butterfly?
[26:08] Abi: I wanted to use a butterfly to represent that constant promise of the ability to transform and change. And even when things are messy, even when things are hard, even if you're feeling delicate and broken, that there's always a strength in us. And that the strength. There's an opportunity to persevere and to rise up, to transform, to become something else. Just because you been in one place or been in a field or have made certain choices, doesn't mean that those can't be changed. And you can always grow. You can always grow. And I think that it's a general symbol of just the idea of being uplifted and transformed. It's something that brings beauty that's important to our ecosystem. And I feel this way about the arts as well, that they allow one to transform, that they're integral, that they're such an important part of our human experience, and that there's always room to transform. You always have a place there.
[27:18] Dr. Diane: So, as you dream big about the arts and their ability to transform, what are some of the next things that are going to be happening for you and for Arte Libre? What are some of those big dreams?
[27:30] Abi: So really exciting things coming up on the horizon. Part of the original vision when I first started putting together the ideas for what would become Arte Libre, was addressing head on these challenges to access that I kind of referenced before. So geographical access is super challenging in our community, but so is financial access. The very few art programs that exist, you tend to have to pay to be able to participate, which, as a teaching artist and a working artist, I understand completely and also support. So with Arte Libre, we always offer our programming, our workshops, our educational opportunities tuition free. We will never be in a place or a space where you have to pay to participate with something that we are providing. And we always pay our teaching artists. That's the other thing that is so important, not only for working artists and teaching artists now, but for the younger generations to remember and to be shown and modeled, that you do not give away your labor for free. It's super important. So one of our really exciting things coming up is we have purchased a vehicle to turn into the Arte Mobile. So the original vision was to have a mobile art studio to be able to bring these art workshops and experiences to communities. And of course, with the pandemic, things had to shift a little bit and pivot. And we've been working through our partner organizations, which is a beautiful thing, but we're ready to take that next step, be a little bit more active and present in the communities themselves. This small truck that we have will be able to bring pop up art classrooms. So we'll have room for tents and tables and chairs. We'll have plenty of room for storage and equipment. So whatever that art activity is, whether it's printmaking, whether it's sculpture, whether it's mural painting, we'll be able to bring everything to the communities, to the youth, to be able to participate and create art.
[29:44] Dr. Diane: Oh, that's wonderful. That makes me so happy that you're finally able to take that step on your journey. That is incredible. And if people would like to follow your journey or support your journey, how would they contact you?
[29:58] Abi: So Arte Libre VA. Spelled A-R-T-E-L-I-B-R-E-V-A. As in Virginia. And that is our handle on all of our social media platforms. We have a presence on Facebook, on Instagram. We have a TikTok channel that we haven't used very much, but we plan to in the future. Our website is www.artelibreva.org and our email is info@artelibreva.org. You can reach me personally by emailing abi@artelibreva.org and I spell Abi A-B-I.
[30:43] Dr. Diane: Thank you so that's awesome, Abi. Thank you so much for sharing all of that. If you are interested in supporting the mission of Arte Libre and the efforts to provide equity in arts education, to bring art into the communities and improve access, please reach out to Abi and Arte Libre VA. And if you would like to join the festivities here in Winchester, Virginia for Dia de los Muertos on November the second, please follow their social media and you'll get more information on how to join them. Abi, thank you so much for joining me today on the Adventures and Learning podcast. It has been a real delight to have you here.
[31:24] Abi: Thank you so much. It's always a pleasure talking to you, and I love the work that you do thank you for including me.
[31:32] Dr. Diane: You've been listening to the Adventures in Learning podcast with your host, Dr. Diane. If you like what you're hearing, please subscribe load and let us know what you think. And please tell a friend. If you want the full show notes and the pictures, please go to drdianadventures.com. We look forward to you joining us on our next adventure.