25th WArd Arts & Culture committee

Montserrat Alsina

Born in Venezuela, Montserrat is a multidisciplinary artist, teacher and cultural worker. She received a B.A. from Rhodes College in Visual Arts and Education, and an M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She holds a 200 level yoga certification. She spends time between Chicago and the Dominican Republic, making art, practicing yoga and supporting communities. She is a co-founder of Colibri Studio Gallery, 18th St Pilsen Open Studios and Nahui Ollin Danzas Ceremoniales. She has exhibited in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

She has executed mural projects around the Chicago area. She worked full time at two leading educational institutions in Chicago, Francis W. Parker School and North Shore Country Day School, for a total of 19 years; and has taught in numerous Arts organizations. Alsina has received a number of grants from the Illinois Arts Council as well as from NSCDS giving her the opportunity to travel to Mexico, Spain, Germany, Luxembourg, France and Indonesia.

Hector Duarte

Hector Duarte was born in 1952 in Caurio, Michoacan, Mexico. He studied mural painting at the workshop of David Alfaro Siqueiros in 1977. Since moving to Chicago in 1985, Duarte has participated in the creation of more than 50 murals. He has exhibited his paintings and prints in solo and collective shows at such venues as the National Museum of Mexican Art, the School of the Art Institute, the State of Illinois Gallery, the Chicago Historical Society, and Casa Estudio Museo Diego Rivera in Mexico.

Duarte has received a number of awards, including a 2008 Artist Fellowship Award from the Illinois Arts Council, 2005 and 2007 Artistic Production Awards from the Secretary of Culture of the state of Michoacán, a 1995 Chicago Bar Association Award for best work of public art and a 1994 National Endowment for the Arts project grant. In 2006 he participated in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as an invited muralist.

Duarte is the co-founder of the Julio Ruelas Print Workshop in Zacatecas, Mexico, La Casa de la Cultura in Zamora, Mexico, and the Mexican Printmaking Workshop in Chicago.

Cristina Puzio

Cristina Puzio is a resident who grew up in the Pilsen neighborhood and offers traditional healing methods, like curanderismo, and community care. Cristina is the founder of the community healing mercado and an active member of El Paseo Community Garden. Preserving the culture and the arts in Pilsen is very important to her. Cristina has been under the wings of many great leaders who came before her such as her mother Guadalupe Balderas, Caros Cortez, and Francisco Mendoza just to mention a few.

She offers accessible reiki, ancestral healing and meditation at community organizations and at specific community events throughout the year. Cristina has worked with the following agencies and institutions: Mujeres Latinas en Accion, Jdef Peace Project, Erie Neighborhood House, Tepochcalli, El Paseo Community Garden, National Museum of Mexican Art, Olin Studio, Full Circle Collective, Three Seeds Gallery, Casa Maravilla and Elevarte. She understands the need for self care, holistic wellness and mental health care in the community.

Pablo Serrano

Born in Chicago to Mexican immigrants who came from Durango Mexico in 1979, his work has focused on using the creative potential of art to explore different aspects of citizenship, education, and politics. Constantly seeking to engage different members of the broader community about important questions and concerns through his art classes, music and art shows, he believes that every creative means possible should be used to find and make meaning in this complicated world.

All his life he’s engaged in social art experiences as an artist, teacher and music event organizer. He studied Graphic Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign then became a High School art teacher at Farragut Career Academy. He got his Master of Arts in Teaching from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and pursued a PhD in Art Education from Northern Illinois University. Mid PhD program he left to establish The People’s Stage Karaoke and co-found Kombi Chicago which provides meaningful musical experiences to the Latino community of Chicago.

Kate Bowen

Kate Bowen is an artist and educator living and working in Chicago, IL. She is currently the Executive Director of ACRE (Artists' Cooperative Residency & Exhibitions); an artist led, community focused residency and exhibition program based in Chicago, IL and Steuben, WI. She is the Treasurer and member of the Board of Pilsen Alliance; a non-profit focused on raising grassroots leadership and fighting for community self-determination on Chicago's lower south side. As an organizer and arts worker her practice is grounded in collaborative, abundant community building. She believes in open experimental platforms and feral pedagogical systems. She also works with the Museum of Contemporary Photography as their Video Programs Coordinator and as a technical assistant to the artist Barbara Kasten.

Roberto Ferreyra

Born on July 9, 1957 in Morelia, Michoacan State, Mexico. Graduated from The National School of Painting, Sculpture and Printmaking “La Esmeralda”.

He was initially drawn to the plastic arts from the works of the great Mexican muralists Rivera, Siqueiros and Orozco and the artist of the Taller de Grafica Popular. Robert’s works have been shown in Spain, Canada (Montreal, Toronto), United States (New York, Chicago) as well as in his own country.

Ferreyra is also an acclaimed poet, winner of the 1985 2nd Bienal de Poesia Breve, Valparaiso, Chile and 1986 “Antologia de Poesia Joven Latinoamericana”, Revista Mairena, Puerto Rico.

He is co-founder of Colibri Gallery in Pilsen.

Actually he is spending his time between Mexico and USA working in several printmaking workshops as well as his own studios in Mexico and Chicago.

Teresa Magaña

Teresa Magaña is a multifaceted Chicago creative who has established herself as a mixed media artist, educator, curator and gallery owner. Her work is rooted and heavily influenced by her Mexican and Chicana identity. Supporting and developing emerging local and international artwork as a curator, ties into the passion she first tapped into as a developing musician, writer and poet herself. Now as Executive Director to Pilsen Arts & Community House, she will continue to offer this community space as a platform for others seeking the opportunity to tap into their very own passions and creative endeavors as well.

Pablo Ramirez

Pablo Ramirez is an artist, organizer, poet that has deep ties to the neighborhood of Pilsen. He has been heavily influenced by the cultural and artistic traditions that have existed in the neighborhood since he lived on 17th St. as a child. From the storytelling of the likes of Carlos Cortez, David Hernandez, Carlos Cumpian to the murals of Alejandro Romero, Marcos Raya and Sal Vega he took it all in and now translates it all out in his poetry and artwork. He has deep roots in Hip-Hop and loves to communicate with that same swagger and style. As Board President of Pilsen Arts & Community House, he will work towards securing the organization's role as a steward to the creative ideals and services of what the Pilsen community has provided to us over generations.