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Creative pride

Troubled youth get second chance

It's not a bug going around Mart’n Moreno's downtown studio, but it is infectious.

The renowned Chicano artist runs a public program that uses the power of art to help at-risk youth get back on track.

"There's pride in the work that's created, and it carries over into other areas. It's kind of contagious," Moreno says.

A longtime advocate of the Tucson-based Las Artes program, Moreno saw it come north 1_ years ago. It is a collaboration of Maricopa County, Arizona Call-A-Teen and Goodwill, and it forms a 10-week component of a comprehensive program that helps dropouts ages 16-21 earn their GED.

"This is an innovative program that puts their work out there publicly, the ones who fall through the cracks," the Michigan native says.

His students have done portraits of Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and others. The pieces have been well-received at city events and by passersby at the courtyard outside the studio at 501 W. Jackson St.. Moreno says his students are excited to do more.

"The need to create and express yourself is universal," says Moreno, who saw the positive impact such programs had on troubled youth in Detroit. He knew it could work in Arizona.

"There is a void. We try to fill that void."

In the early 1970's, Moreno met fellow Chicano artist Alex Garza, a Chicago native who witnessed how art programs helped heal broken youths seeking one more chance. Garza brought a bit of the Windy City to the Grand Canyon State and created Las Artes in 1992 with artists Carlos Valenzuela and Gonzalo Espinosa.

That first year, Garza held shop in a public housing apartment that was formerly a crack house. Ten weeks later, students emerged with seven 18- by-16-foot murals.

"Out of that was produced something beautiful," Garza says.

Pima County officials asked Garza to run a summer youth program at 23 W. 27th St. and offered resources to assist him. This support continues today. Las Artes mosaic murals are throughout Pima County's public thoroughfares and 85 percent of students earn their GED. The mosaic tiles are made in the Las Artes studio in South Tucson, a neighborhood comprised of Mexicans, Native Americans and Yaquis - cultures represented in his students. Garza uses this as a motivator.

"Those cultures are rich in pride. They're proud, and they respond very positively," he says.

Garza sees former students working at banks, doctors' offices and real estate firms. Many thank him. One of them told him she worked at a sheet metal plant - as a computer drafter.

"I looked at her hands. There were no cuts," he says.

"I knew she wasn't working with sheet metal."