Works by Rafael Casco will be on exhibit throughout his residency in Knoxville.
KNOXVILLE, TN – The Arts & Culture Alliance of Knoxville have selected Rafael Casco, an emerging local artist, as the Betsy Worden Artist-in-Residence at the Emporium Center from April through September 2010.
Casco was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where he received a degree as an art teacher from the National School of Fine Arts in Honduras and studied psychology at the National Autonomous University. He has participated in different art events in Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, and throughout the United States.
He uses his art to design pottery, furniture, and to create and install custom murals; his collection also includes carving, molds, caricatures, and drawing.
Casco taught art to at-risk children and adults in Latin America and the U.S., including his work with the YMCA in San Jose, CA, where he used art as a gang prevention strategy with low-income Hispanic youth. After living in Los Angeles for a few years, the destruction in Honduras from Hurricane Mitch compelled him to return to his home country. He worked with children living on the street and used his skills in art therapy. He also taught art in the high schools while continually searching for ways to show his own art. In 2005, he returned to the U.S. to pursue his dream of exhibiting and selling paintings. Casco sends some of his paintings to the Institute of International Languages in Honduras to be sold for scholarships for children who want to learn to speak English but cannot afford the tuition.
He currently shows work at Earthspeak Studio and Creative Spirit Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tenn., and for the past three years has participated in the Artist-on-Location and Latino Art Exhibition at the Knoxville Museum of Art.
As the Artist-in-Residence in Knoxville, Casco receives free and exclusive access to a 10' x 10' artist studio in the Emporium Center (Suite 105), sponsored membership in the Arts & Culture Alliance for one year, and a solo exhibition of new work at the end of his residency (September 3-24, 2010). During each month of the residency, the Alliance will display at least one piece of his new work in the public areas of the Emporium, debuting at First Friday receptions.
The next Betsy Worden Memorial Artist Residency period is October 2010 – March 2011 and is available to college students and other young and emerging artists. For more information, please contact the Arts & Culture Alliance at (865) 523-7543 or e-mail sc@knoxalliance.com.
