Cultural Collective for the youth in Cuetzalan

July

We had a Frame making workshop, with Marco Zavala “Zamer”. The emerging artists learned to make different kinds of wood frames, to be able to preserve and give a better presentation to their works.

We also had a mural painting with stencil workshop, directed by Daniel Castillo, an artist from Chiapas. The mural was made for Radio Tzinaca of San Miguel Tzinacapan, Cuetzalan. 

August

In August we issued the First Call for Scholarships. Through them and in part with help from the municipality, we covered transportation costs of young people from different communities in Cuetzalan. We were looking for youth who are talented and interested in learning more drawing and painting, or engraving. In the workshops they receive materials for free and they learn from both our teachers and teachers that come from outside. We received 40 applications, and we accepted 28 youth who finished activities in October. 15 youth decided to continue coming and learning with us.

We had an Engraving workshop in wood called  "Tonals and Nahuales" with Issvan Duarte, from Oaxaca. In which, in addition to the technique, the interpretation of the Zapotec calendar was taught and expressed in different engravings.

September

In September we held the First “Cultural Week” at the Antonio Lavoisier Telesecundaria in San Andrés Tzicuilan, in which 222 young people participated. 115 men and 107 women who received music, drawing, mural painting, engraving and singing workshops for a week. That same week on Saturday we held a small concert in Casa Tiltik with the invited artists to the Cultural Week and an exhibition at Casa Tiltik, with live music and works by students from the drawing and painting workshops.. 

October

We also had a Tattoo Drawing Workshop with Edgard Gamboa, a teacher from "La Esmeralda" art school in Mexico City. At the same time, Orly Echavarry, a graduate from that same school, gave the art workshop "One, two, three for me and for all my colleagues" to women that help other women in vulnerable situations..  we offered this workshop in conjunction with the Kualnemilis, Yolpakilis Trainers Network.

We also issued the Second Call for Drawing and Engraving Scholarships. On this occasion we received 25 young people, from towns and the center of Cuetzalan. 

During all these months we continued to work with the support of the Ministry of Culture, through the FONCA program; Lemonaid & Charitea Foundation and with the donations we receive through GlobalGiving. Thank you for your valuable support!!  

In general, these are the activities we did during the following months: 

June: 

- Luc Delannoy & Daiana Mendez, from the Instituto de Neuroartes, came to give us a workshop titlied "The pictoric body -no Mind". It as a workshop designed to make us feel more clearly the consciousness in our bodies and how we can use that concisouness to express through painting. The workshop was taken by members of Tiltik but also by members of Tijiohtli in general.

- Graphic workshop in the Tepetitan Telesecondary School, attended by approximately 50 youth, and painting of a mural in that same school, In collaboration with grafitti artist "Shay", from Colombia.

May: 

- Painting of the mural in the main production house of Cuezalli Café., also in collaboration with grafitti artist "Shay" 

- Sgrafitto workshop with Charly Conde, in San Andrés Tzicuilan, Cuetzalan del Progreso

- Mixteyot Vázquez from Miguel Tzinacapan joined our team. We are very happy to have him onboard. 

April: 

- Graphic design workshop with VJ Ilogic.

- Mapping session in Cuetzalan del Progreso and San Miguel Tzinacapan by VJ Ilogic. Also and in collaboration with the collective Taltikpak Konemej we organized a neon exposition for children in the municipal palace of San Miguel. The children did some neon face painting, and some painting exercises. - So while the kids played and saw the paintings' exposition, they were also enjoying the mapping and music of the exposition. 

- Photo workshop with María Abril from Chile

- Workshop of Neon Painting with Aluqimera, and neon Exposition in Tiltik house

- Alebrijes Workshop by Sandra Comala

- Integration workshop with Tepetzintan High Shcool and Colegio Merici from Mexico City

March:

- Stencil workshop in Bachillerato Nezahualcoyotl in San Miguel Tzinacapan with the help of Sean McPlace, 

- Mural painting in Tepetzintan Secondary School. 

 --------

Thank you to our co-sponsors:

These months were marked by the reactivation of lots of activities for us. In March we finally received funds from Secretaría de Cultura, from the FONCA program, from the Sistema de Apoyos a la Creación y Proyectos Culturales (SACPC), We also have the ongoing support of the Lemonaid and Charitea Foundation, and from the Byre Trust through globalgiving. Thank you!

--------

Where to now? 

We are working to attract more youth that can be frequently taking the different workshops and activities we do. That is why we started going again to schools, in order to do activities and invite youth so that they can go more time to Tiltik, either for engraving or painting lessons. The activities in schools up until now have been introductory lessons to visual arts. However the last workshop we took with "Instituto de Neuroartes, (with Luc Delannoy and Daiana Mendez)" taught us several techniques that can be used for sensibilizing the youth in general, and where not much emphasis is put to the technichal aspect of art but more in the emotional part of art. We are looking forward to learning more of these techniques with said Institute in the future.

We are working to produce our festivals where we promote music, painting and arts in general through the painting of murals in public spaces, workshops in schools, and music concerts. The first festival was quite successful in the knitting of ties in the networks of artists, aspiring artists, and new audiences. However, it was very difficult to operate and we're trying to join forces with other collectives or teams that can help us produce the event. We're also looking for funding for them. 

We are working to sell more works; we have started selling in "Casa Tiltik", in Cuetzalan del Progreso. Our sales are still modest. We want to be able to sell prints and other cheaper merchandise. 

Links:

• Instagram Page
• Facebook page