ArtSí Charlotte Announces Featured Artists for its Signature Event “Con A de Arte 2015”

Artists to Perform/Present Live at 12th Annual Event Celebrating Hispanic Arts and Culture

ArtSí Charlotte, an arts initiative that supports and connects Latino artists in the Charlotte area, today announced the featured artists for its signature event Con A de Arte 2015. Artists featured this year include performers, visual artists, and writers who will present their works live at the Con A de Arte event taking place on Wednesday, June 10th at Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts, 500 South Tryon Street, uptown Charlotte, at 6:30 p.m.. The presentations will be followed by a reception that will give the public the opportunity to interact with the featured artists. Appetizers will be served. Cash bar available.

The featured artists were chosen by a group of professionals from institutions that include The Mint Museum, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, and Queens University of Charlotte. The artists to be featured at Con A de Arte 2015 are:

FEATURED ARTISTS:

  • Luis Ardila – Visual Arts
  • Carlos Cruz – Multidiscipline Performance
  • Rocio González – Multidiscipline Performance
  • Zaire Kacz – Visual Arts
  • Ivan Toth Depeña – Visual Arts
  • Al Torres – Visual Arts

As part of the Con A de Arte celebration the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library will host a Literary Night at the Beatties Ford Road Regional Branch on Tuesday, June 9th from 6:30 to 8 p.m. The Beatties Ford Road Library is located on 2412 Beatties Ford Road, Charlotte, NC 28216. Appetizers and soft drinks will be served.

The keynote speaker at both events is Mexican-American Photographer and Pulitzer Prize Winner Journalist José Galvez.

ABOUT JOSE GALVEZ

For over 40 years, José Galvez has used black and white film to create a powerful and unparalleled historical record of the Latino experience in America. His compelling work, done with respect, pride and no pretense, captures the beauty of daily life.

His photographs have been exhibited in museums and galleries here and abroad, including the Smithsonian. But more often, you’ll find him toting portable exhibits to schools, libraries, fiestas, low-rider shows, and rodeos.

Galvez moved on to the Los Angeles Times, becoming the first Mexican-American photographer on staff. In 1984, he was on a team of reporters and photographers that won a Pulitzer Prize for a series on Latino life in southern California: the first Chicanos to win the Prize. He left the Times in 1992 after winning many other awards for his photographs.

Galvez was an editor of and contributor to Americanos. He’s collaborated with writers such as Luis Alberto Urrea and Patricia Martin. His own stories illustrated with pictures he’s shot through the years is told in Shine Boy. His current work focuses on Latino communities of the American South, naturalization ceremonies, and documenting the many communities he visits every year.

ABOUT ARTSI:

ArtSí is a community initiative that advances the Latino arts and culture in the Charlotte region and that facilitates connections with the Charlotte arts community at large. ArtSí is run by volunteers, and it serves a membership base of over 200 individuals, from Latino artists to art supporters, and its work is backed by a group of well-known and respected local organizations that support its mission. Organizations supporting ArtSi include: the Mint Museum, Queens University of Charlotte, Levine Museum of the New South, McColl Center for Visual Art and Innovation, and the Latin American Contemporary Art Gallery (LaCa Projects).

ABOUT THE CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG LIBRARY:

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library began more than a century ago as a treasured repository of knowledge. Although people have evolved to read, explore and acquire knowledge in many new ways since then, one important feature has endured: Their services remains free to all who come to its premises with a desire to research, learn and experience.

The Public Library serves hundreds of thousands of people while also responding to the needs of individual library visitors.