Gloria Gonzáles García is a teaching artist in the Yakima Valley area, with nearly 30 years of experience teaching visual art in public schools, and out-of-school for community arts and cultural organizations—from the gifted, to the underserved, to incarcerated youth. García specializes in instruction that represents the artworks of BIPOC artists and artforms that are culturally relevant to her students’ cultural heritage.
“Visual arts is my first love…while growing up poor, my mom made sure I had brown paper bags that I could draw on, along with popsicle sticks and bottle caps to construct with…by the age of five I had declared I wanted to be an artist," writes García.
"I remember my fourth grade teacher Mr. Martinez who presented Native American and Latinx art projects (mid-1970’s) and showing a film on “Los Tres Grandes”—Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siquieros. Watching that film I remember connecting with becoming a visual artist as a real goal, seeing works that I connected with on a soul-level. During my junior high school years I was able to participate in Company 7, a program for creatively talents students in the Yakima School District. I began my art teaching career through the Yakima School Districts’ AmeriCorps team, as a paraprofessional in Company 7. Sharing cultural-grounded art-integrated lessons with underserved youth allows me to address current social justice issues and continue serving my community.”
In addition to her work in schools, García created her Mobile Art Studio (MÁS or “more”) in 2018 to bring the visual arts to school-aged, underserved youth in her community through FREE, culturally engaging learning experiences in the eastside Yakima neighborhoods where they live. García is also a professional working artist exhibiting throughout Washington State, with several prints juried in national exhibitions and selected for public art collections. García also served on the Yakima Arts Commission and Yakima Valley College’s Larson Gallery Guild Board, where she curated and co-chaired, TERRAIN—A Survey; and organized, ARTicipate Yakima, an interactive arts street fair. She was a participant in the ArtsWA Change Leader Institute in 2022.
Teaching Superpower: “My teaching superpower is my experience working with underserved communities, as I am in the unique position of sharing many of my students’ cultural heritage, and/or their socio-economic background—introducing these youth to artworks, artforms and artists that are culturally relevant to them. Whether I was contracted directly with a classroom or an arts organization, I always found a way to include BIPOC artists’ works in lessons that represented the demographics of students.”
García will be teaching a WSAC Creative Start Math & Visual Arts Integration Culturally Responsive Lesson, “Going Round and Round,” (Thursday, August 17th from 2:45—4:15 PM) at the 2023 WA State Migrant & Arts Education Conference taking place August 17-18, 2023 in Yakima. Register by August 8th to attend! In this lesson that García presents for educators to use with their students, Early Learners view the work of Latinx artist, Beatriz Milhazes, then explore negative and positive space by using circles to create their own collage compositions.
Photos courtesy of García.
