Salina Almanzar

Artistic Discipline: Creative placekeeping, community-engaged practice, mural arts
Contact: email: salina51691@gmail.com; www.salinaalmanzarart.com
Age Groups for Residencies: K-Senior Citizen
Artist’s Statement: Salina Almanzar (sah-lee-nah ahll-munczar)(she/her) is a Puerto Rican and Dominican artist, educator, writer, social justice advocate. Her art and scholarship examine the intersections of Latinidad, feminism, decolonial practice, and Taino spirituality. She is specifically interested in what it means to be ni de aqui y ni de alla, meaning being part of a diaspora that is between spaces and between cultures. She is from Lancaster, Pennsylvania and graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in 2013 with a double major in Studio Art and English Literature. She spent about two years working in galleries and museums in Philadelphia and Lancaster City before deciding to pursue a Master’s in Arts Administration in 2015. She completed the Arts Administration and Museum Leadership Graduate Program at Drexel University in June of 2017. There, she completed a thesis examining Creative Placemaking in the Lancaster Latinx community. She has since continued her research through continued data gathering via story sharing as well as serving as co-facilitator of the Latino Empowerment Project. Salina was elected to School District of Lancaster School Board and is the youngest and first Puerto Rican elected to the board. Salina also serves as a teaching artist in Lancaster City parks through Lancaster Pubic Art.