Members of the 2015-16 ACTIVATE Program cohort launched advocacy initiatives (Action Projects) impacting 26 cities and 27 school districts across LA County. Below you can learn more about these Fellows and their advocacy initiatives.
Nathalie Sánchez is a Los Angeles based artist, art educator, museum educator, and arts advocate. Sánchez received her Bachelor of Arts in Art History and Studio Arts with an emphasis in education from Loyola Marymount University (LMU). Her curatorial, art administrative and art education experiences with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Fowler Museum, ESMoA, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, ArtworxLA, P.S. Arts, and Avenue 50 Studio, further enhance her personal and professional art practice. In 2010, Sánchez graduated from Otis College of Art and Design with a Master of Fine Arts in Public Practice. Combining her passion for socially conscious enriching work, and participatory engagement through cross-cultural conversation, multi-media installation, and event production, she has developed an art practice based on and in the public realm. She has collaborated with cultural organizations and art institutions to produce small and large-scale community art projects and public art programs.
Currently, she serves as the Visitor Engagement Supervisor at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Cultural Policy Fellow
Long Beach
Marqueeda Watson, a Cultural Policty Fellow from Long Beach, has been working to develop a Digital Media Mentorship Program to assist students and novices in discovering new professional opportunities in digital media. Participants in Watson’s Digital Media Mentorship Program, are introduced to the entrepreneurial spirit of the digital world and acquire practical skills that will allow them to make use of basic digital media infrastructure (wordpress, tumblr, etc.) to increase fluency in digital and social media platforms. Watson’s interactive workshops aim to encourage participants to pursue digital media as a career and demonstrate that art is an integral component of digital media and various other career fields.
Cultural Policy Fellow
Rancho Palos Verdes
Peggy Zask, a Cultural Policy Fellow from Rancho Palos Verdes, has been working in collaboration with CSULB and CSUDH to develop a community arts center in the city of San Pedro. Zask has attended neighborhood council meetings to participate in discussions regarding the redevelopment of the city of San Pedro, providing a voice for the arts in conversations regarding the vision for and renewal of the Downtown San Pedro area. By presenting critical information about the creative economy in neighborhood council meetings, Zask intends to continue influencing the redevelopment of Downtown San Pedro to ensure that the arts are incorporating in a meaningful way, including a space for a community arts center in the heart of the city’s new center.
Link to Project