Cartonería skeletons created by Rubén Guzmán collaborating with Fruitvale neighborhood youth

Project Title: Cartonería Project
Recipient Organization: Green Policy Institute
Fiscal Sponsor: The Tides Center
Lead Artist: Rubén Guzmán
Genre and Date Awarded: Traditional Arts, June 2001
To Be Presented: In a series of events in 2002 and 2003

Sculptor Rubén Guzmán is collaborating with the Green Policy Institute to produce a series of papier maché sculptors and installations celebrating the ethnic identity of his Fruitvale District neighborhood in Oakland, California—home to a large Mexican immigrant population. Focusing on calendrical holidays and events, Guzmán is sharing the traditional cartonería (Mexican paper sculpture) practices and techniques that he learned in Mexico City from the internationally-renowned Linares family. He has opened his studio to neighborhood teenagers, working with 55 of them to create a series of works that contribute to a their greater understanding and continuation of traditional artistic skills, while also strengthening the teenagers’ pride in their shared heritage.

Rubén Guzmán holds a degree in Graphic Design from Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana in Mexico City. He studied cartonería in classes given by Ricardo Linares at Museo de San Carlos and Leonardo Linares at Casa Estudio Diego Rivera in Mexico City. Since living in Oakland, California, he has taught, and exhibited his work in numerous venues and participated in community celebrations. Guzmán believes that the artist has a responsibility “to keep alive these traditions and not let them fade due to distance or the passage of time. Latino artists must teach the new generations growing up in the United States to understand and recognize their cultural identity.” He has followed through with these beliefs by committing himself to teaching Mexican traditional arts in a number of settings since his arrival in the United States.

The finished works will include a variety of sculptures and installations, including altars for the Day of the Dead, monumental Judas figures for the Sabado de Gloria and Cinco de Mayo, helmets and swords for Mexican Independence Day, and piñatas for Christmas. All of these works will be used as part of public displays and performance events, the traditional context for use of cartonería figures and objects. Guzmán also is displaying certain pieces in storefronts along East 14^th Street, Fruitvale, and Foothill Avenues, as well as in some neighborhood public buildings.

The mission of the Green Policy Institute is to help states, counties, cities, towns, and neighborhoods achieve greater economic prosperity through self-reliance, ownership, and empowerment. In addressing its mission, it is convening a network of community development experts, preparing reports and feasibility studies, and conducting workshops. By collaborating with an organization that focuses on engaging community residents in bettering neighborhood environments, Guzmán intends for the project to strengthen an inner city community’s understanding of, and pride in, many of its members’ shared and impressive heritage and to draw together the broader population of Fruitvale with residents of Mexican descent. This cartonería project built upon Guzmán’s previous efforts in this neighborhood as part of grants from the Alliance for California Traditional Arts and the California Arts Council’s Traditional Arts program, but also enabled him to work in greater depth, targeting a wider variety of artistic products over a longer period of time, so that the artist and the organization may increase visibility of his work and of the traditional heritage it draws upon. In addition to the art pieces created, he and the youth founded Oakland Kids for a Better Future who participate in many neighborhood improvement projects (creek restoration, street cleaning, painting bus stops) and backpack, camp, and rock climb together.

LEAD ARTIST

Rubén Guzmán

Professional Experience

• Alameda Arts Commission Watershed Program (2001)
• Richmond Art Center, Richmond, California (2001)
• Museum of Children’s Art, Oakland, California (2001)
• Associated Students of the University of California Art Studio, University of California, Berkeley (2001)
• Grant Recipient, Alliance of California Traditional Artists (2000)
• Commissioned by Disney to create two Chinese dragonheads to be displayed in Disney California Adventure (2000)
• Exhibition, “No Me Llamen Maestro,” Day of the Dead Fruitvale Festival (2000)
• Group Exhibition, “Roots of the Past-Wings of the Future,” Richmond Art Center, Richmond, California (2000)
• Grant Recipient, public art project, Cultural Funding Program, City of Oakland (1999)
• Exhibition, “A Window on México…& Beyond,” Bank of Marin (1999)
• Exhibition, group show, “Paper Traditions,” San Pablo Gallery, San Pablo, California (1999)
• Exhibition, group show, “Dia de los Muertos,” San Pablo Gallery, San Pablo, California (1999)
• Exhibition, group show, “Fruitvale Colors, ProArts, Oakland, California (1999)
• Exhibition of “Los Viajeros,” in “El Color de la Muerte,” Oakland Museum, Oakland, California (1999)
• Exhibition of works in Fruitvale Day of the Dead Festival (1999)
• Exhibition of “Si Se Puede,” Day of the Dead Fruitvale Festival (1998)
• Exhibition of “México Viejo, México Nuevo,” Laney College Art Gallery, Oakland, California (1998)
• Exhibition of works, Cesar Chavez Student Center, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California (1998)
• Exhibition of works, San Francisco, Sonoma, and Berkeley, California and Lunesteadht, Germany (1997)
• Exhibition, “Some Very Well Behaved Bones,” in “Unidos en Espiritu: Altars and Offerings for the Day of the Dead,” Oakland Museum of California (1997)
• Exhibition of works in Vallarta, México City, and Baden, Switzerland (1996)
• Exhibition of works in Dominican Republic and Jalapa, México (1996)
• Exhibition of works in México City (1995)
• Founding Partner and Director of Graphic Design Department, Sintesis Gráfica Firm, México City (1989-1996)

Teaching Experience

• Park Day School (2000)
• Art Activity Center, Yosemite National Park (2000)
• East Bay Science and Arts Middle School (1999)
• Alameda Arts Commission Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (1999)
• Merritt College, Oakland (1999)
• Art 10 Project, Richmond Art Center (1999)
• Volunteer instructor, Webster Academy, Oakland (1998)
• Volunteer trainer, Mexican Folk Art, Cesar Chavez Library, Oakland (1997)
• Mission Neighborhood Centers, San Francisco (1997)
• University of California, Berkeley (1997)
• Ann Austin Studios, Emeryville, California (1997)
• Edison Elementary School, San Francisco (1996)
• Centro Universitario Hispanoamericano, México City (1987-1989)