From larger-than-life murals that tell stories to classroom lessons that spark imagination, plus our awesome community workshops that make life more colorful – we’ve got it all covered and want to share the latest with you all in one place. So please join us in celebrating the arts, the kids, and the pure joy of bringing both together in our revamped community newsletter! Keep reading for the latest updates on all things ArtReach and our wonderful San Diego community.

ArtReach in the News

To boost arts and cultural experiences for San Diegans, the city is funneling $12.2 million to local nonprofits for programming and neighborhood projects this fiscal year.

“Our annual support of local arts and cultural organizations fosters a stronger economy, creates more jobs, gives our city a sense of identity, and enhances the lives of San Diegans and our visitors from around the world,” said Mayor Todd Gloria.

Thousands of students in San Diego have little access to free visual arts education programs. We exist to help fill this gap by crafting lasting and meaningful creative experiences for young artists that would not otherwise have the resources.

We are thrilled to receive funding from the San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture to continue our mission of igniting youth creativity through visual arts expression and community connection.

---

Employee Spotlight

This summer, our Teaching Artist, Sierra Aguilar, was invited to speak at the San Diego Employee Giving Committee Showcase at Qualcomm to receive a generous $12k grant from SDEGC and share the story of ArtReach with their community.

This amazing gift of funding will impact our in-class residency programs by allowing us to buy more supplies and further develop our Social Emotional Learning content.

We are so proud of Sierra’s hard work and excited to see where her tenacity will take her next. And another special thanks to Qualcomm for their generosity!

---

Mural Program Feature

One of our latest mural projects was in partnership with the College Area Business District at The Little Flower on the corner of El Cajon Blvd and 56th Street. Beautifully designed by Regan Russell, who lives just down the street from The Little Flower, this mural represents the heart and community of the College Area. Daisies, roses, and carnations fit together like a puzzle and form the shape of a heart. Bright and uplifting colors, some painted by the smallest of hands during our Community Paint Day, catch the eyes of all who drive or walk by. It is a joyful reminder of the love and companionship that can exist between neighbors and even strangers. Similarly to the different types of flowers coming together in the mural, we witnessed people painting together for the first time, local businesses contributing food and drink to share (Scrimshaw, Cheba Hut, and The Cravory), and countless people stopping by to talk and share stories.

This project has been incredibly special, and we are grateful we could help bring this neighborhood together through painting and collaboration. A big thank you to Maria Elena of The Little Flower for being a wonderful host and for trusting us with her wall space. Thank you to the College Area Business District and College Area Community Council for making this project possible. We are excited to continue to see all that blooms in the College Area!

---

Back to School Highlight

ArtReach is ecstatic to return to McKinley Elementary for another year of our Artist in Residency program! Our Teaching Artists, Brooke Benedix and Kristina Stahl will lead TK-5th grade students in a year of dynamic and engaging visual arts and ceramics classes with International Baccalaureate (IB) and Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum integrations.

We spent our first week warming up to the art room, completing small art exercises, assessing our skills, collaborating on classroom expectations, and conversing about letting go of perfection. We read the absolute classic, Ish by Peter Reynolds. The book Ish tells the story of a boy, Ramon, who can’t create his drawings “right” and crumples them up. When he realizes his sister saved all his crumpled drawings on a wall display, she reminds him that instead of his art being a drawing of a “perfect vase,” what if it could be “vase-ish”? What if we accepted that everything we tried our best at could be “ish” instead of perfect?

Have you read Ish? Let us know!

---

ArtReach in the Community

Thank you to everyone who showed up at Lazy Acres Mission Hills to make buttons with us and hear all about our community programs! On Saturday, August 26th, members of our team, along with 5 other local organizations, set up a booth outside the store and welcomed the community as they did their grocery shopping.

Now through June 2024, every time you visit the Mission Hills location with your own reusable grocery bags, you will receive one 10-cent envirotoken per bag. These can then be dedicated to your favorite nonprofit (that’s us!), and every month, Lazy Acres will tally up the tokens and convert them into monetary value, helping us fund our programs!! This is a wonderful fundraising opportunity that we are very excited to be a part of. Here’s where to shop to help us provide equitable access to arts education for youth in San Diego.

Lazy Acres Natural Market
Mission Hills Location
422 W. Washington St. 
San Diego, CA, 92103

---

Get Involved with ArtReach

ArtReach’s Community Programs focus on providing art education to San Diego County with the guiding principles of cultivating artistic community and equitable access to art for all. Community Programs focus on craft and process-based visual arts programming for local community organizations. Our programming focuses on collaboration, investigating identity, and highlighting the practices of local professional artists.