USA Projects

I am a furniture designer/maker looking to start a brand new artist collaborative, Artists Helping Artisans (AHA), which will focus on helping artisans in marginalized communities whose craft traditions or livelihoods are at risk. With the current economic crisis, and tourism dwindling, many of these craft communities are in dire need of help. 

A large scale exhibition of my work is scheduled for Sept 2010 at MACLA, Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latinoamericana, in San Jose during the Zero1 Biennial. MACLA has allowed me to use the exhibition to showcase (and kickstart) collaborative works with artisans—and for the first time in my art career, allow me to become a catalyst for social change through the creation of craft.  

I have wanted to create collaborative works with artisans I met in Chiapas and Oaxaca since a trip in 2007. For the MACLA exhibition, I plan to spend June 2010 in the highlands of Chiapas working with Mayan women to collaboratively create new functional art pieces. Chiapas is a place whose struggle for indigenous cultural preservation has led to one of the richest artisanal traditions in Mexico, and for the same reasons, is one of the most economically repressed regions.  

The $7,000 will help cover the costs of: 

·        Plane tickets for myself and a documentarian/assistant 

·        Shared hotel accommodations for 1 month   

·        Stipend for artisans involved in workshops  

·        Per diem for myself and a documentarian/assistant

·        Materials for creation of collaborative pieces 

·        Car rental for 1 month     

·        Shipping of works from Mexico to US 

For the collaboration, we will work side-by-side, learning from each other, and the finished pieces will aid in sustaining craft traditions in the region through 1) promoting their work and history 2) helping financially support the artisans/community involved in the project through fair compensation and increased market access. This will be attained not only through exposing their work to a larger audience attending the biennial, but also through the development of a website and marketing strategy all dedicated to promoting their work and region. The process and stories that come from the experience will also be documented and exhibited with the final works. Upon my return to the US, I will be creating a new large scale work in response to the new techniques and experiences in Chiapas to be exhibited alongside the collaborative works.  

This will serve as Phase 1 of a longer-planned relationship with artisans worldwide, helping to provide dignified wages and setting up new modes of sustaining traditions—the creation of Artists Helping Artisans (AHA).  

Having grown up on the US/Mexico border, and experiencing economic inequality first hand, a responsibility to give back to communities has often played the most important role in my work as an artist. Besides the making of functional art objects, I have been involved in the practice of art for education and as a tool for community empowerment and humanitarian efforts. These parallel efforts have included building and running of a community center in an endangered community in Mexico for six years. From 2007 on, I have been able to travel to Alaska, Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Delaware to further my commitment to community work and arts education. I am now currently involved in the Watts House Project where I am the lead artist/designer on the first home renovation as part of a large scale artist-driven collaborative redevelopment project in the area surrounding the Watts Towers. 

Starting Artists Helping Artisans (AHA) will bring me closer to my lifelong goal, which is the marriage of my two loves: community work and craft. As globalization increases, the importance of the hand crafted and dignified wages decreases. Our society has been overlooking the importance of economic/social/environmental responsibility as consumers.  The artist/artisan communities that created economic growth and industrial development worldwide are dwindling as cheap labor and machines take precedent. I have educated myself in applied design/craft not only for a love of making, but to be able to share with others my education and to help create recognition and opportunity for artisans. Having formal training in woodworking, ceramics, metalsmithing, and textiles as well as a commitment to community development and arts education I would love nothing more than to facilitate ethical design and the spread of arts education/awareness.  Creating relationships with artisan communities in the US/Worldwide and developing products that highlight communities’ strengths. Giving recognition to craftsmen and helping to provide an economic platform to those who need it most.     

THANKS!

Tanya Aguiñiga

www.aguinigadesign.com