This page honors the artists who continue to create, connect, and build with care.
The ARTS Foundation offers microgrants to BIPOC artists and cultural workers across Turtle Island to support creative projects in all forms. These small but intentional funds prioritize artists often excluded from institutional support—offering resources without restrictions.
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Artist Project
Tree Herrera, aka Tree Art, is a Filipino American visual artist from Los Angeles who creates paintings, drawings, poetry, zines, earrings, and prints. Using a mix of acrylics, colored pencils, watercolors, markers, and pens, Tree explores themes of self-love, disability, mental health, community care, racial justice, humanity, Deaf culture, communication, and sign language. As a disabled artist with a speech disability, Tree uses art as a powerful form of expression, proving that actions speak louder than words. Through their work, they amplify voices that often go unheard, creating spaces for understanding and inclusivity. Their art has been exhibited at the Historic Pico House, Pehrspace, Pasadena Art Market, The Smell, SIPA, and Highland Park Market. This year, Tree will be tabling with Yellowstainedblue at LA Zine Fest at The Broad on March 2nd.
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Artist Project
I am an animation major. I’m in my final year of graduation, and I’ve started working on my capstone. It is called an alley cat dream.
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Artist Project
Aiyana Graham is a painter, sculptor, fiber artist, and educator; they were a 2024 recipient of The Nevada Undergraduate Research Award for their work in transgender and disability studies. Graham’s art revolves around the body as a site of queer, trans, racial, and disability issues and focuses on highlighting the complex lives of marginalized people through embodied surfaces. They graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and a Bachelor of Arts in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. They currently work in Las Vegas, Nevada.
2025
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Educational Workshop
Cathy Calabio is a Las Vegas-based ceramic artist creating functional and sculptural pieces through handbuilding and wheel-throwing. Inspired by the Las Vegas desert, she embraces imperfection and the passage of time in her work. Cathy values the slow, meditative nature of clay and shares her experience through workshops and community events.
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Educational Workshop
Manu Garcia (Manu Del Mar Ceramics) b.1992 is a Los Angeles-based ceramic artist and community educator. Specializing in hands-on learning, Manu teaches ceramics to children and adults, emphasizing creativity through experimentation and self-discovery. Their work as ceramic artists is rooted in the tradition of storytelling, using clay as a medium to explore identity, resilience, and memory. Manu views ceramics as more than just a physical craft; it is a means of communication. A language that allows for history to be preserved and to amplify unheard voices, creating dialogue between maker, material, and observer. Manu holds an AA in Ceramics from Glendale Community College and a Community Teaching Artist certificate from CalState Los Angeles. Manu fosters artistic exploration in community spaces such as POT LA, NOVA Community Arts and Art Space HP. They have participated in GCC Student Art Show, Show and Tell POT LA Art show, and The Hive Gallery Loteria exhibit. Manu hopes to create a community by teaching free workshops to those who don’t have access to ceramics in different areas of Los Angeles.
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Educational Workshop
Christine (b. 1991 Los Angeles, CA) is a visual artist, liberatory guide, and healing arts practitioner. She has had a long-standing interest in depth psychology, personal healing and storytelling–which informed much of her earlier works that were centered around cultural identity and the filipine diaspora. She continues to weave these interests to find connection and meaning by utilizing socially engaged creative practices through digital drawing and graphic design. Christine is currently completing her Akashic Mentorship program with Leah Garza; and continues her guidance work to create space for others to connect with their autonomy. This year, she is excited to reconnect with more tactile artistic practices.
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Artist Project
Nica Aquino (b. 1990, Los Angeles) is a practicing visual artist, curator & cultural producer. She received her BFA in Photo from the Pacific Northwest College of Art (Portland, OR) and her MA in Contemporary Visual Culture from the School of Art at Manchester Metropolitan University (United Kingdom). Her work has been shown locally, nationally and internationally, and she has been awarded grants by the California Arts Council and Eastside Arts Initiative for her curatorial and community engagement programming. In her artwork, she primarily experiments with 35mm analogue photography, just documenting life as she sees it. No fancy bells and whistles, no manipulations, just an everyday point and shoot camera, cheap film and what's in front of her at the time. She believes art making should be accessible, and that you don't always need the newest fanciest toys to create something meaningful.
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Artist Project
Alissa Tu (she/her) is a Vietnamese American writer, dancer, and passenger princess. Born and raised in Olympia, Washington, she hails her MFA in Writing from the University of California San Diego. Her debut memoir Confessions of a Modern Day Kumiho (2023) was published with Blue Cactus Press, and her work can be found in Fruitslice Zine, Honey Literary, The Asian American Writers’ Workshop, and diaCRITICs. She is currently editing and working on “Bus Tickets,” writings on and in San Diego’s public transit. You can find her on Instagram as heyalissa or alissatu.com.
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Educational Workshop
Her 38 Roses wants to continue the fight against domestic violence. We want to help women overcome their circumstances by providing resources, education, and support. Women's Empowerment gives women their flowers while they are still here.
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Artist Project
My art practice is a contemplative process where I utilize photographic mediums as a tool to explore my past, present, and future self. I incorporate personal archival materials within my work such as journal entries, old family portraits, and photo albums to examine themes of memory and personal history. By honoring the past, I can rescue aspects of my identity that have been suppressed or neglected. The recollection of remembering is a necessary factor in my art practice as I believe it can help me self-actualize.
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Artist Project
22 year-old artist studying animation at CSULA with a love for painting. Continuing to experiment with animation techniques and subject matter. Part-time art teacher in Pasadena.
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Artist Project
Adjo in Sierra Leonian krio means tenacity. Through this project, I want to explore themes of triumph over colonial enterprise from an Afro-futurist lens through linocut printing. I’m really inspired by tokusatsu and the ancient nomoli figures of Sierra Leone, so I want to fuse them together into something amazing
2024
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Educational Workshop
Fifth Sun Project is a mutual aid, art, and Cultural collective facilitating projects and resources in collaboration with the community. Her 38 Roses is a DV/SA/MMIW advocacy and mutual aid nonprofit.
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Educational Workshop
“My life-force has always been stories. Not just what they are made of, but what they are, or simply that they are. Beyond my love for all the shapes a story can take, beyond the language and world-building of literature and cinema — the pure intention; the ritual form. What does it mean to be a messenger, to have a message?”
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Artist Project
I am exploring themes of belonging and identity. As a woman born and raised in Southern California who has now spent almost half of her life in Mexico City, I am constantly reflecting upon what it means to belong to one place or another, and I seek to understand better who I am through my painting practice.
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Artist Project
Lille Allen is a Latinx designer and writer based in Las Vegas, NV. She works with trash to tell stories from the margins.
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Educational Workshop
Jesus Orozco is a local muralist, art teacher, community activist, humanitarian, and gardener. Multi-media visual craftsman. “Art has been an expression of connecting the bridge between Man and Nature, it takes true Bravery to be an artist.” He grew up in Los Angeles, California, surrounded by the rich culture of the people and history. Studied the power and gift of storytelling within the murals that inhabit the city. His work has given him an opportunity to work alongside the youth in creating experiences with murals. A member of Left Of Center Gallery and a resident of Las Vegas since 08. Jesus seeks to continue learning and giving back to his community. He is a current student at UNLV while he obtains his credentials. His work can be found at schools such as Myrtle Tate Elementary, Manuel J Cortez Elementary, C.C. Ronnow, J.E. Manch, Bertha Ronzone Elementary, Arturo Cambeiro Elementary, YMCA of Southern Nevada, and The Golden Sun Studio.
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Artist Project
I am a black woman artist whose work engages the Black community. My quilts use fabric and photography to tell stories of the Black American experience and sometimes other marginalized groups. I have been experimenting with how I can tell a story through fabric.
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Curation Project
Leilu Hernandez and Davey Parks are proud to present Queer Pop - Perspectives on 21st Century Pop Art, an exhibition displaying a queer approach to Pop Art in the contemporary. The works in this show contribute to the long and colorful history of Pop Culture as a means of expression, resistance, and connection within queer communities. Reflecting on both contemporary popular culture and popular culture from their childhoods, the featured artists break away from the traditional perspectives on Pop Art which have long been restricted to the artistic criticisms of the mid-century straight white male.
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Artist Project
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Educational Workshop
1st Free Women-led & oriented Self Defense program that ensures our community has access to learn to defend themselves without breaking the bank.