MARGARET ALARCON

Margaret “Quica” Alarcón has been a professional Chicana artist, educator and cultural worker for almost 30 years. She is a formally trained artist with a full range of comprehensive illustration and Fine Arts skills including sculpture, drawing & painting, design, and printmaking. She is well known for her Amoxtli book making & papel picado kinetic sculptures. She was born and raised in East Los Angeles, and received her B.F.A. in Illustration from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, freelanced in advertising for 2 years in the 90’s, received an M.Ed. in Cross-Cultural Education (with heavy emphasis in special education), obtained an M.F.A. in studio arts here at Cal State LA, and is credentialed in k-12 Visual Arts. For the last 12 years, together with Susana Fattorini, she helped to build and set up a robust Visual Arts programming at all 5 elementary schools for Culver City Unified School District.

As a local artist and educator, she brought art activism through decades of community work with Self Help Graphics and co-founded/developed Mujeres de Maiz, a grassroots, women’s VAPA organization. Her work has been included in many publications and exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the country. In 2015, she was one of 5 artists chosen from a national pool of applicants, to complete an artist residency in Havana, Cuba, for an unprecedented printmaking exchange through Self Help Graphics & Art. for more information: www.margaretalarcon.com