Chula Vista artists took over a chunk of downtown to make a point. Message received: the community has talent.
Three streets off Third Avenue closed for the afternoon for the Heart on Center Festival and the art community turned out to show their paintings, music, jewelry and other creative displays of self-expression and reflection.
Despite the weather, the turnout was good, filling up the streets that were closed to traffic to accommodate the event.
“This event is about access and giving the people access to their own community,” said organizer Dr. Kimberly Feilen. “And we’re shutting down three streets to do so to make sure there is no excuse that we can’t have art in our own community.”
Performing Arts Coordinator Sylvia Lugo was there representing Southwestern College along with Pigment, SWC’s art club.
“When I found out about the project I said we definitely have to get involved,” said Lugo. “It’s a way for all of us to get together and be in this environment to help promote the arts.”
Frank Paredes, vice president of Pigment, said he was glad the club had a chance to mingle with the community.
“Hopefully we grow and get a lot of people involved,” he said. “A lot of people are afraid to do art as a career or as a major. We want to bring them out of the woodworks and just do art.”
Parades said he joined Pigment because he believes art has a profound impact on society that is often left unnoticed.
“Everything around us is art, we’ve got signs and flyers and architecture,” he said, adding that the club wants its members to grow as artists and as people.
Feilen began shaping the idea for a local art festival two years ago after receiving an opportunity to create a service learning initiative grant for 15 weeks at SDSU. After the time frame was up, Feilen said she realized she wanted to focus the program on civic action and learning, so she developed the Heart of the Center Art Festival.
“I wanted them to also learn how to research a community to find out what they want from themselves,” she said. “Every semester we’ve had way more students that have wanted to take the class than can get into it, which has been a beautiful opportunity, so they allowed me to teach it three more semesters and this is the culmination of that.”
Feilen said she calls the group LoCAL Arts Collaborative, because it is in Southern California, but not just SoCAL, and she believes in the importance of emphasizing what she calls “keeping art in the local.”
Feilen said she hopes the festival will help bring people in the community together.
“Bringing awareness to the funding community is such a huge connection issue.”
Inspiration, as well as connection, Paredes said, is the reason why the half dozen artists from SWC were willing to stand in the rain on a Saturday evening.
“We’re hoping the people get inspired,” he said. “We’re trying to give artists a voice.”
