AS220’s Artistic Director, Shey Rivera, was the Keynote Speaker for the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures 30th Regional Arts Training Workshop in San Antonio, Texas on Friday, April 29th.

Below is an excerpt from an article written by Elda Silva for the San Antonio Express-News:

San Antonio and Providence, Rhode Island, have something unexpected in common: A large Latino population that is still fighting to be represented in mainstream institutions.

Shey Rivera, artistic director of AS220, an arts center in Providence, Rhode Island, drew that comparison during her keynote speech Friday before an audience of Latino artists and arts administrators gathered at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center for the National Association for Latino Arts and Culture’s 30th Regional Arts Training Workshop.

“We’re in an age where there’s a lot of fire, there’s a lot of confrontation around identity,” said Rivera, who talked about issues of cultural representation and creating change. “We’re looking at what we’re putting (on) the table and looking at who’s accepting it and who’s not, so I think this conversation is really timely, especially with what the Guadalupe has been facing in San Antonio.”

Rivera was referencing the recent controversy that erupted when the Guadalupe withdrew as the host of the 2016 CAM Perennial exhibition in March because there were no Latina artists in the all-female show.

“Unfortunately, as we all know, that’s not a unique situation,” Rivera said. “San Antonio, 50 percent Latino, still struggles with representation, the same way that Providence, another city that’s basically half Latino, struggles with that, too.”

Read the whole article online at the San Antonio Express-News