Lester C. Pearson

I am 25 years young from South Seattle, WA. I graduated from Franklin High School in 2010 (Seattle, WA) and Bowdoin College in 2014 (Brunswick, ME). At Bowdoin I majored in Visual Arts with an interest in Graphic Design. When I am not teaching painting to the students at the Southwest Interagency . I mentor with MBK (My Brothers Keeper) students at Mercer Middle School. I am a part-time Uber/Lyft driver. I am a Freelance Artist (graphic design, painter, and photography). I chose to teach painting because painting is one of my passions that I have fallen in love with. What I know I want to pass onto the next person. “Each one, teach one” . I also always wanted to give back to the youth one day. I just want to see positive and successful things out of people.  It takes the youth to help the youth!

Read More

Carina del Rosario

Born in the Philippines, Carina A. del Rosario immigrated to the United States as a young girl. She earned her B.A. in Communication from Santa Clara University in 1991. She has studied photography with Magnum Photographer Alex Webb, Rebecca Norris Webb, Raul Touzon and Eddie Soloway, and a variety of visual arts media at Pratt Fine Arts, Cornish College of the Arts and other cultural institutions. In addition to her own creative and documentary projects, she is a teaching artist and helps youth use visual arts and digital media to explore their communities, advocate for what matters for them, and express their own experiences. She works with a number of schools, cultural institutions and community-based organizations to help students develop 21st century skills through the visual arts. She collaborates with non-profit organizations and educational institutions to help illustrate issues such as poverty, education, health and civil rights. She also founded IDEA Odyssey, a collective that promotes cultural diversity, community development and economic prosperity in the International District/Chinatown neighborhood through visual arts. In 2013, the International Examiner honored her with a Community Voice Award for an Individual Artist.

Read More

Sabrina Chacon-Barajas

As a first generation Latina I have found art to be empowering and a means for discourse and education. As an artist I explore social issues in the Latino community through illustration and mixed media. I graduated from Seattle Pacific University where I earned my Bachelor’s Degree in Studio Art. I was involved with the SPU community as an educator on issues of race and reconciliation. During this time I was also able to work with incredible youth and I had the amazing opportunity of mentoring young female students from Mexico. I have a strong desire to combine the arts and social justice to empower youth. I dedicated my Senior Show to the strong individuals of the Latino community in the United States and my own mother’s journey as an immigrant. I was recently involved in building a holiday float with South Seattle students to celebrate the Day of the Dead. They were able to gain artistic and technical skills to better equip them as they begin thinking about college and career paths. Currently, I am also working with South Park Recreation Center as an Artist and Art Teacher.

Read More

Meredith Arena

Meredith is a writer, visual artist as well as a teacher/facilitator from New York City. As a teacher and artist, she is interdisciplinary, making work that ranges from photographic imagery to drawing to sound collage. She has also dabbled in some performance. She is interested in creating work that can tickle a range of senses and fluidly move between the abstract and concrete. This is because she is deeply aware of both the poetic/silly nature of life as well real suffering caused by social injustice. This makes her work with youth able to be at once playful, engaging and critical. Meredith creates and implements curricula that develop life-skills, creativity, social consciousness and mindfulness using movement, writing and visual arts.

Read More

Lauren Appel

Lauren Appel has worked as an arts educator at many cultural institutions in Seattle and New York, including Seattle Children’s Theater, Youth Theatre Northwest, Rubin Museum of Art, Abrons Arts Center, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and also currently works at Hilltop Artists in Tacoma, where she runs a visual art program for court-involved girls in Pierce County. She has worked with students of all ages as a visual arts educator, a theatre teaching artist, and a museum and gallery educator. She has a particular interest in curriculum-integrated arts learning and collaborating with classroom teachers and school administrators. Lauren holds a BA in theater from Smith College and a MSEd in Museum Education from Bank Street College of Education.

Read More