Meet the Team
By Alyssa Llaguno
Art Builds Community during an online team meeting. Pictured top row (left to right): Amanda Rawson, Research Director; Quynh-Mai Nguyen, Creative Director; Barbara Goldstein, Principal; Angie Menjivar, Research Assistant. Bottom row (left to right): Miranda Chang, Visual Designer; Alyssa Llaguno, Marketing Intern.
Click-click. The static. The quiet hum in between people taking turns to speak. These are the meetings that happen in Art Builds Community, also known as ABC, online, seemingly quiet and monotonous.
Yet a few moments right after everybody gets situated and microphones are muted, the anticipation grows as each team member checks boxes off the agenda — the stories of farmers in the valley, recognition of the women in Santa Clara County, and how to help more artists achieve their full potential — these are meetings that allow public art to build communities.
“I’ve always loved art,” said Barbara Goldstein, the principal of ABC. “I grew up in a suburb of New York and as soon as I was old enough to get on the bus and get into New York City, I would go to art museums. I really enjoy art and I really enjoy supporting artists doing their best work.”
Art Builds Community is a public art consulting firm that aims to bridge the gap between art and people, forming multicultural and dynamic communities on the foundation of sharing each other’s cultures.
As each project grows and many more are in tow, the team is hidden further behind the events, monuments, and activities. But as there is a community formed through each public art, so is the community at ABC strengthened.
“I like to be able to choose who I work with and I want the job to stay true to my values and what I care for,” said creative director, Quynh-Mai Nguyen, in response to working in ABC.
While San Jose is known as Silicon Valley and filled with technology, the city is also rich in diversity and culture — the opportunities for these shared values to transcend beyond different groups are found in abundance in every corner, with public art at the center of these conversations.
ABC team on a public art walk with a client on California Avenue, Palo Alto during the pandemic.
This unique characteristic of the valley is highlighted by Amanda Rawson, the project manager, as she elucidates why public art belongs in San Jose. “For me, it’s just so simple — it’s here for the community,” said Rawson. “Public art should be a public benefit. Public art, let me see if I can express how I feel with words, if it engages people, it introduces cultures to cultures, it introduces age groups to age groups, if anything, it brings a community to be more diverse than it already is [diverse].”
Bridging art and people, technology with public art, is even more evident in the work taken on by the team in ABC. Womanhood is an upcoming project for women of the past and present to be recognized for their historical contributions to the valley. It will tackle what it means to be a woman then and a woman now, as discussions of womanhood, women across all intersectional identities, and our place in society have been postponed for far too long and overshadowed by far too many.
These kinds of projects are what binds the team of Art Builds Community together, the vision of building communities through public art in collaboration with artists, creating human-centered places in an ever-increasing technological world.
Alyssa Llaguno is a marketing intern at Art Builds Community and currently a graduating senior at San Jose State University. Connect with her on LinkedIn.