The Westside Story
In the last twenty years, the west side of Salt Lake City has undergone dramatic demographic changes. Once predominately white, Salt Lake City's west side, is now represented by a population of which more than 40% of the residents are ethnic minorities. Between 2000-2004, 41% of Utah's population growth consisted of people of color, predominantly from Latino backgrounds. And during the same time period, 75% of the enrollment increase in Utah's public school system were students of color (Perlich, 2006). In some of the schools more than 42 languages are spoken by students from more than 55 countries. These numbers suggest the rate at which the demographics of Salt Lake City are changing.
Despite the remarkable diversity and pool of resources that these immigrant and refugee groups bring to our community, public discourse has marked the west side of Salt lake City as the "bad side" of town. West side neighborhoods are literally on the "other side of the tracks" from the more affluent neighborhoods that have been more traditionally white and upper class and where institutions of higher education are located. This division has kept people from both areas from interacting with each other. As a result Salt lake Valley residents who are not familiar with the West side have unfairly labeled neighborhoods as dangerous, "ghettos," plagued by gangs, drugs, and violence.
The Chicano, Latino, Indigenous, immigrant, and other communities of west Salt Lake and the greater Salt Lake Valley have limited space and/or educational opportunities through which they can view or create art that represents, examines, challenges, reclaims, or reinvents concepts central to their racialized and cross-cultural life experiences. Most galleries located throughout the Salt Lake Valley are predominately situated on the east side of Salt Lake or east of the railroad track divider. These galleries rarely focus upon the experiences of artists of color, nor do their spaces cultivate an understanding or utilization of art as a form of activism, empowerment, and social justice. This lack of access and opportunity underutilizes the artistic and creative talent in this community and leads to feelings of disempowerment and misunderstandings in the civic life of the community.
The Mestizo Institute of Culture & Arts' Gallery is the first one of its kind to be established on the west side of Salt Lake City with the explicit goal of serving the Chicano, Latino, Indigenous, and immigrant communities residing in the Salt Lake Valley. Since Mestizo Institute of Culture & Arts is located on the west side of Salt Lake City, we provide a vital community and creative space in the community for neighborhood residents. Much of our programming, such as the Mestizo Arts & Activism program, our low-rider workshops, and the Muralism program, engages young people residing on the west side. We maintain our audience through our continued and consistent community-driven program and responsiveness to the needs of community members. All are welcome and all programs are free or by donation. We serve Salt Lake County by providing the missing stories and visual representations of its residents by providing space for community-driven programming, and by consistently inviting surrounding residents to claim ownership.
Mestizo Institute of Culture & Arts' philosophy is to provide a "homelike" nurturing space and place for artistic growth; every person who walks through the door is treated like a guest and asset of our community. Through a series of creative processes and engagement with various artforms, the organization intends to grow burgeoning artists who wouldn't traditionally have access to the art world. Through this lens the organization seeks out and recruits "taggers" or those labeled "at risk" by the criminal justice system, as well as those who simply go unnoticed to assist in a creative process that engages community inspired murals, poetry, music, activism, and discussions. Our creative process is demonstrated by our muralism program. In this program young artists apply and are interviewed by the Gallery's professional artist in residence. Once selected they go through team building with each other and are introduced to the neighborhood through tours with surrounding organizations as well as neighborhood walk through tours. Focus groups are set up in order to engage the residents and communicate to the young artists what is important to them, which images or message of art is important in creating spaces of belonging. Through various dialogue and discussions with neighborhood residents the artists create images that capture the essence of community concerns and interests. These images are then transformed into various murals. In addition, through open mics, poets and musicians grow their craft every week with an invited one group/person performance weekly/monthly. Every level of talent and every age group are invited to practice and grow through performance in a nurturing space. Film nights, panel discussions, gallery shows, theatre, workshops, etc. are also a part of the creative process that the community brings and decides.