Tacoma nonprofit can finally showcase Latino artwork with the help of state funds
Soon enough, art pieces and cultural artifacts will adorn one of the rooms in Mi Centro, a nonprofit organization that offers services to the Latino community in Tacoma.
Mi Centro, formerly known as Centro Latino, was one of the many nonprofits in Washington that received pandemic relief funds last month.
The Washington state Department of Commerce and ArtsFund distributed nearly $11 million in recovery grants to more than 700 nonprofit organizations. Organizations could request between $2,500 and $25,000.
Mi Centro received $22,500, which will go toward establishing a cultural arts center in the building, said Bernal Baca, executive director of Mi Centro. Baca — whose office is decorated with artwork of activists like Cesar Chavez — has always wanted to develop a cultural arts center.
“It’s the ice cream on the cake,” Baca said. “You gotta put culture in there somewhere.”
The COVID-19 pandemic prevented the cultural arts center from coming to life, Baca said. Mi Centro had to divert its funds from creating the arts center to helping people cover food and rent expenses incurred during the pandemic.
Now that Mi Centro has some funds in its back pocket, the nonprofit can start building on the cultural part of the organization, Baca said.
“To be able to have a cultural piece here … makes (Mi Centro) more well-rounded,” Baca said. “This money is gonna be good seed money to do that.”
Baca said he already started purchasing artwork from artists like Alfredo Arreguin, who is based in Seattle. Arreguin creates a lot of oil paintings and has had his work featured in museums like the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Jake Prendez, who is also based in Seattle, is another artist Baca plans to feature in the arts center. Prendez owns the Nepantla Cultural Arts Gallery in Seattle and focuses his oil paintings and digital pieces on Chicanx and Indigenous culture.
This year marks the first time Commerce and ArtsFund partnered together to provide statewide funding, said Sarah Sidman, vice president of strategic initiatives and communications for ArtsFund. All grant recipients received over 90% of the funding they requested, she said.
Nonprofit organizations can use the funds for expenses incurred between March 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021, according to a press release from Commerce. Most grant recipients applied for the funds to cover staff salaries.
Some of the services Mi Centro offers include English Second Language classes as well as crisis intervention and assistance for those who have suffered domestic violence or sexual assault.
Mi Centro also does advocacy work on immigration, farmworker rights as well as large-scale issues that affect people of color, Baca said. Mi Centro has been around Tacoma for about 35 years.
