For the past year LA CAPacidad lived in El Salvador engaging in Mural, Theater, and Printmaking projects made possible through a Fulbright fellowship to its Creative Director, Oscar Rene Cornejo. LACAP worked with youth programs and schools to paint Murals in the communities of Mejicanos in San Salvador and Jucuapa in Usulutan.

The head of LA CAPacidad's theater department and visiting puppet master, Amber Marsh Extract co-directed and built "Cuentos Polvosos" in her third collaborative year in El Polvo, El Salvador. The original production was composed of seven original short stories collaboratively written with her students along with the Creative Director. With Mayan and Olmec influence, the stories were told with fantastical characters through masks with pantomime performance, featuring important topics in El Salvador.

Cornejo's Fulbright project was to start a Print Shop, which acted as a creative hub in rural El Salvador where talented and invested individuals gathered subject matter and participated in art workshops. Through the Print Shop LACAP was able to have a local newspaper (mini-periodico), and design a hand bound book with prints and poems.
For instance, the first mini-periodico, "La Fiesta Patronal" included local stories, legends, illustrations, and creative writings which included works from the youth of El Polvo. The second printed production was a theater edition of "Cuentos Polvosos" as a way to further digest its critical insights. A hand bound book was designed and silk-screened by Ukiah Carbone-Gambon, a visiting North American artist. This last one titled "Desde el Campo con Amor y Arrechura", was yet another collaborative effort, it features Cornejo's original poems, short stories, and woodcut prints.

Finally, LA CAPacidad's session ended with the exhibition show The Presence of Absence at the Museum of Anthropology of El Salvador (MUNA) in collaboration with Inciativa Arte Popular – INAR and the Association of ex-Fulbrighters. The exhibit consisted of woodcuts by Oscar Cornejo, the photographic work of LACAP participant Tania Jimenez D'Sahagun and Fulbright scholars Allison Ramirez and Jocelyn Courtney's documentary. The documentary The Safety Valve: Understanding Contemporary Salvadoran Society. These independent projects by local and international citizens allowed the opportunity of contemplating relevant issues stemming from the recent past. The Presence of Absence is the culmination of these observations and interactions within contemporary El Salvador.

The relationship that LACAP has developed in their second consecutive summer in the southeast of El Salvador, motivated the 2006 summer session to focus on themes that are prominent in the community. Themes of historical memory, consumption, and the relationship of dependency that a town has with remittances from the United States are come to light.

LACAP closed its 2006 session with artistic discussions delivered in the bohemian art space of La Luna, in the modern capital of El Salvador. Different mediums of art unfold as the " witchcraft " of photography, " hypnotic " theater, " magical " printmaking, fine art " demonstrations ", “ clandestine ” murals, " rebellious " embroideries and finally videos of " memories " address the themes that endure in Salvadoran culture. LACAP also warmly premiered its invited artist, Imagination Explosion with a preview of "The Package", a puppet performance on the seductive life of advertisement commercials.

El Polvo Project - El Salvador 2005

The next LACAP project will focus on the mountain community of El Polvo, in La Union, El Salvador. Youth in this tiny village have few creative outlets and face tremendous pressure to take wage-earning jobs before completing school, both common problems in El Salvador. LACAP will seek to address some of these concerns, as well as provide additional services to the community.

The Péta-Project - Mexico 2004

Our first effort, the Péta-Project, took place in summer 2004 in the fishing village of Petatlán, in Geurrero, Mexico. It was made possible financially by a Benjamin Menschel Fellowship for Creative Inquiry. It involved preparing our facility, a long unused building in need of much renovation, teaching adult and children's English classes focused on terminology relevant to local jobs, and teaching printmaking to local children. Both the community in Petatlán and the individual artists have been equally enriched through this exchange of knowledge and skills. The experiences and art produced in Petatlán were documented and exhibited at Cooper Union in New York City November 9-20, 2004. We hope this exhibit will promote the ideals of the project and generate further funding to ensure its long-term sustainability. Thanks are due to the Menschel Program for enabling LACAP's inaugural project to be such a great success.


	Copyright © 2004 - 2008 The Latin American Community Art Project