Alfonso Perez
I was born in Colombia in 1980 and graduated with a Fine Arts Degree in 2006, as well as a Masters in Education in 2011 in Bogotá. My involvement with artistic education has been very active since 2007, as an Art Teacher for Elementary, Middle and High School groups in different schools and non-profit organizations. In 2015 my family and I moved to the United States and I have been living and working in the Richmond area to date.
Richmond is a place where my artistic practice has grown significantly, connecting me to different people, communities, organizations and institutions to work on creative healing projects and ways of visibilizing a change of narrative into our different cultural identities. In 2019 my work was recognized as the cover story for the Top 40 Under 40 from Richmond’s Style Weekly Magazine, highlighting my role as an Art Program Director with Sacred Heart Center and co directing the ARCA project (Art, Reconciliation and Civic Advocacy) with RVA Thrives, connecting African American and Latin American youth through public art.
At the end of this same year I was able to present my independent dance and drawing project called Migration Flow, where we celebrated the first National Immigrants Day in Virginia. And in November I had the chance to design and share a TEDx Youth talk, focused on the different ways we can use Creative Languages to transform barriers into opportunities.