A note from our Executive Director...

¡Feliz Año Nuevo de San Anto Cultural Arts!

SACA staff has hit the ground running as the new year has arrived. Last year saw tremendous changes in the life of the organization, and I want to thank each of you for supporting us with encouragement, time, inspiration, and love. We never would have weathered the loss of Manny without you; your belief in San Anto Cultural Arts helped us survive after his passing. Even though it's been a year, we miss him every day and we keep his mission and vision in our daily work.

The hardest part of the transition may be over, but 2010 is going to prove to be a HUGE year for San Anto Cultural Arts, and we need your continued support as much as ever as we strive to meet the increased demand for our programs and services. here are a few highlights to watch out for as we look toward 2010...

· Raza Poetry and Open Mic Night featuring Desahogate #2: Amor y Pazion at Guadalupe Street Coffee from 6:30-9:00 p.m. on Friday, January 22

· Blessing of the “Consciousness” Handball Mural Blessing (Lead Muralist: Rico Salinas) on Saturday, February 27

· Kick off of the “Transformation” Haven for Hope Mural (Lead Muralist: Gabriel Garcia) in the Spring

· El Placazo Foto Workshop in June and the Exhibit July 10 with Mari Hernandez as Lead Photographer

· The 13^th Annual Huevos Rancheros Gala and Silent Art Auction on Saturday, October 2 at the Plaza Guadalupe

· Dia de Los Muertos Barrio Procession on November 2 in collaboration with Inner City Development, the P.E.A.C.E. Initiative, and the San Jacinto Senior Homes

· And oh yeah, our own building!!! More details to come…

We hope to see you at as many San Anto events as possible, and know that you're always welcome to pop by our office and check in. On behalf of the Board and Staff of San Anto Cultural Arts, have a happy new year, thank you for all you've done, and we hope to see you soon!

Heather Eichling
Executive Director
San Anto Cultural Arts

SACA highlighted in "On the Town eZine"!

When "On the Town eZine" editor Gerry Lair contacted San Anto about highlighting our Community Mural/Public Art program in his online magazine that promotes visual, theatrical, and culinary arts in San Antonio, we jumped at the chance. Check out this exciting article with four colorful pictures at www.onthetownezine.com and click on the January/February 2010 issue. It's under the "More Visual Arts" section. Share it with your friends!

Happy New Year from San Anto Cultural Arts!

We are excited about all the promise 2010 holds for our organization, and we hope that you can be part of it!

We are so proud of La Chicana Collectiva!

San Anto Cultural Arts would like to congratulate La Chicana Collectiva on their great art opening on December 19. The Collective is composed of two San Anto staff, Ruth Buentello y Cristina Ordonez, and three other loyal San Anto supporters, Mari Hernandez, Sarah Castillo, and Kristin Gamez. The Collective explored the theme of the Quinceanera in Latino cultura, and what it means to women around the age of 30 who missed it the first time around. They used multiple different media-- drawing, painting, video, fotography, and soundscape-- to create a body of work that both challenged traditional perceptions of that rite of passage and celebrated the women they have become.

Congratulations, Ruth, Cristina, Mari, Sarah, and Kristin!

We can't wait to see what happens next!

Viva La Chicana Collectiva!

To learn more about the exhibit, check out the Current's great article by Natalia Ciolko, and visit Mari Hernandez's blog.

Happy Holidays!

Have a safe and fun holiday season!

We look forward to your support in the new year!

love,

San Anto Cultural Arts Board and Staff

The office will be closed December 22-27 for the Christmas holiday.

Chase What Matters!

Friends y familia,

Chase Bank has come up with an exciting new way to give back to your community. Go to this link to learn more, but basically the gist is that if you search your favorite nonprofit (say, for example, San Anto Cultural Arts), you can cast your vote for them. If the organization gets enough votes, it will be eligible to get a nice chunk of change from Chase Community Giving. They're distributing $5,000,000 nationwide! Help us get in on that!

Here's what you do:

1. Go to http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/home/

2. Search for San Anto Cultural Arts

3. Become a fan of Chase Community Giving

4. Cast your vote for San Anto!

Help out San Anto!

VOTE

Muchos thank yous!

Celebrating the Sound of the City: La Musica de San Anto Mural Blessing

The Saturday before Thanksgiving, which was two days before Manny's birthday, San Anto blessed our 37th mural, La Musica de San Anto. Over a year in the making, La Musica is our biggest mural to date, and is one of our most special projects because of all of the superb musicians captured in its vibrant colors. These musicians include Doug Sahm, Randy Garibay, Eva Garza, Lydia Mendoza, Valerio Longoria, Clifford Scott, Felix Villarreal, Rocky Morales, and Rosita Fernandez. But we treasure this project especially because our late Executive Director, Manuel "Manny" Castillo, Jr. was added after his death in January. He is pictured doing something he loved best: tearin' up his drums.

La Musica has become something of a gateway to the Westside since it's located as cars pass coming over the Commerce bridge. We are extremely proud that the mural has been blessed and dedicated, and we hope that if you missed the blessing on November 21, that you will take a minute to drive by. It's located on the side of a bail bonds building at 1303 W. Commerce.

For more coverage of the event and the mural, check out the great article in the Southside Reporter by Nicole Marie Moore.

EP Poetry Nite 2009

El Placazo has been very blessed with high quality adult mentors over the last several months, the most recent additions being three Our Lady of the Lake University students who came in every Wednesday afternoon. These lovely ladies are English Education majors at OLLU, so they were practicing their craft by teaching our students some of the finer points of writing and journalism. The highlights, however, were their lessons in poetry. They taught the students about different types of poetry, how to write a good poem, and how to give a powerful reading. They worked for several weeks writing and rehearsing their poems, all leading up to the grand finale: a poetry reading at Guadalupe Street Coffee!!

All of the participants and some parents came out on Wednesday night to have an evening of poetry, fun, and fellowship. It was a great success! Here are some pictures from the event:

The students participated in a group reading on how to annoy your teacher. Hopefully they don't use this knowledge on Cristina! 

Serenity getting some last minute pointers from her mentor, Tess

Alexandra and her dad, Rico, reading a poem about her grandma (pictured on Rico's forearm)

Jeremiah G. reciting his poem

Erica, dressed in red, recited her poem about Big Red

Ashley proudly showing off what she wrote

Jeremiah V. and his mom, Dolores, practice her poem called "Toes"

Just another day with El Placazo: poetry reading and picture taking!

Special thanks to Liz, Melissa, and Tess for being such fabulous mentors,

Guadalupe Street Coffee for hosting us,

and our funders and supporters who helped make this event possible!

Gracias!