Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA)
Prevention Workgroup - KCET Departures
Activating Community Cultural Treasures to Foster Community Health
The Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) was established in 1997 and was founded specifically to promote and support folk and traditional artists and their communities. ACTA provides advocacy, resources, and connections in this field. ACTA's work helps preserve the health and longevity of California's diverse cultural communities. During the past four years, ACTA began collaboration with California Endowment's Building Healthy Communities initiative and began exploring the connections between local art and culture and its relevance and importance within local community wellness organizing efforts in Boyle Heights.
To ignite the collaboration, ACTA completed a "Cultural Assets Mapping" process, in which local residents were engaged and asked to identify "cultural treasures" within their community. A "cultural treasure" could be a person, place, group or event that community members find to be of cultural importance. Following this process, ACTA collaborated on designing local programs to connect the cultural treasures with the Building Healthy Communities initiative. Among the recent efforts, ACTA developed a project that is focused on planning and coordination of Activarte events that engage residents, youth, and "cultural treasures" in art workshops, performances, and other creative expressions in public spaces.
During a recent Activarte event featured at Amate y Asegurate in collaboration with the Building Healthy Communities Prevention workgroup, ACTA organized three different cultural workshops facilitated by local cultural treasures reflecting the campaign themes of efforts aiming to increase the reach of the My Health LA health insurance program in Boyle Heights. Before presenting workshops, ACTA convened a group of local organizers, representatives of local public health-oriented non-profits, to increase the knowledge of both the campaign and artistic communities. "Having the artists provide their skills and creative thinking to engage the community of Boyle Heights with Art was insightful. I was excited to help create a path for collaboration," commented local organizer Edith Ramirez. Among other topics discussed during the convening were the health challenges facing undocumented residents in Boyle Heights, the My Health LA enrollment process, and the fact that the health plans that would be featured at Amate y Asegurate were aimed at providing health options for local residents regardless of immigration status.
The first workshop focused on collective song writing with Martha Gonzalez and Quetzal Flores, members of the Grammy Award-winning band, Quetzal, who led participants in a dialogue process in which local health challenges and opportunities were discussed and then woven into a communal song reflective of residents' personal experiences and narratives. The second workshop featured master musician, Cesar Castro, who led young Amate y Asegurate attendees, in a Son Jarocho music workshop focused on developing a health-lifestyle song version of the traditional Son Jarocho song, La Bamba. Finally, during the last workshop, local graphic artist, Dewey Tafoya led youth in a silk-screening poster workshop in which youth developed posters that featured images and symbols aimed at promoting healthy living habits within their communities.
The efforts ACTA has undertaken through the Building Healthy Communities initiative are rooted in the connections between traditional arts practice and health, a connection that ACTA has been exploring since 2008 when the organization commissioned the study, "Weaving Traditional Arts Into the Fabric of Community Health," which was conducted by the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities. The study noted the enhancement of physical and mental health, self-actualization, enhanced identity, and increased desire to grow and learn as part of outcomes of a deepened connection with traditional arts practice. ACTA's founding Executive Director, Amy Kitchener, reflects that, "We're finding that engaging the traditional arts that are a part of people's everyday experience of beauty and identity is a powerful entry point for addressing large-scale community health issues, such as the increased prevalence of chronic illnesses within underserved communities." ACTA is currently preparing for the coordination of larger-scale cultural interventions in Boyle Heights this coming fall and will be working alongside BHC partners to develop future innovative arts and cultural projects aimed at supporting local campaign goals.
