Mission
Develop cultural and artistic activities in the Albany Park Community that involve a variety of existing cultural expressions. Transform the community to a safe environment with access to authentic art and culture.

Vision

The People’s Art Festival will create space to celebrate cultural diversity through the arts and restore respect to the various forms of social expression. This festival promotes the participation and organization from the whole community as well as its institutions, like schools, churches, community center, businesses, non-for-profit organizations’, families and individuals working towards a better way of life.

Objective
1. Organize and develop an annual arts and culture festival. (Summer)
2. Build and maintain a sustainable committee of community members to continue developing this project.
3. Transform and create social and community spaces for local artists.
4. Encourage the participation of other communities in the city.
5. Build collaborative relationships and webs of support within different institutions and organizations.

Advisory Committee
Mr. Gonzalo Andrade

Mr. Jesus Rodriguez

Mr. Mark McKernin

Ms. Rebecca Rico 

Mr. Jin Lee 


Executive Committee and Founders

Zanoni Cuesta - Chair
Zanoni Cuesta is the Chairman and co-founder of Albany Park Art Festival, and is a multi disciplinary artist and Culture Specialist, Zanoni is an experienced actor and theater director; he has been working acting and directing both for around 25 years. He is also a painter who has experienced several techniques. Mr. Cuesta is the director of “La Huella” Theater and Puppets Company as well as the director of “La Colmena/The Beehive” a NFP founded to work in the communities supporting art, culture and education. Additionally Zanoni Cuesta has strong experience as a community and union organizer. He has worked for the Northeastern Illinois University/Chicago Teacher’s Center since 2002.


Luis F. Sinchi Co-Chair
Mr. Sinchi is a photographer, traveler and educator. He lives in Albany Park and is an alumni from Roosevelt High School and Northeastern Illinois University. Currently, Mr. Sinchi is training for his second Chicago Marathon.

Amaranta Cuesta

Amaranta Cuesta is 18 years old, she is a senior at Francis W. Parker School. She has done theater since she could talk, art in any shape or form is her passion, She is a co-founder 
and actress of "La Huella" theater and puppets company. Her leadership developed at an early age, when she would participate at the many meetings her parents held, she now has taken a roll on educating youth about sex as a member of Sisters Empowering Sisters. She is the secretary and co-founder of the Albany Park Arts Festival.

Gonzalo Andrade 

Born on October 23rd, 1944, in Atuntaqui, Imbabura, Ecuador.He holds a degree in International Law. He has 34 years of experiece for the the Foreign Ministry of Ecuador; has served as an ambassador for the ecuadorean embassy in Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua and Brasil and has served as a member of the General Consulate in New York. "During my service in the foreign ministry at "Trade and Integration"(mreci) in Quito, I have held several departments, such as the Department of Cultural Promotion, the Department of Immigration and Foreign Affairs, the Department of Human Resources and the Department of Traveling Documentation."


Victor Montanez 

Victor M. Montañez is a life long artist. He is the Chairman of the Milwaukee Avenue ArtsFestival, Artists Recruitment com-mittee and is a founding Board member of I AM Logan Square, Independent Artists and Merchants of Logan Square. Victor Montañez is the originator of "Empowerment Art” an art form known for its distinct feature of allowing viewers to display the same artwork in multiple arrangements, each arrangement depicting various protagonists. “Know Art”, the term coined to describe it, can be found in various places around the country. The largest concentrations of his public works are in the Midwest and Northern New Mexico. Victor serves as the Special Projects /High School Site Coordinator for NEIU and GEAR UP. He designed and directs the GEAR UP student leadership model at Curie High school.
 Victor is a contributing writer for several publications including, Extra, Chicago’s largest bilingual newspaper.

Emelda Lawson Bekkal
Food activist, writer, musician, and performing artist, Ms. Lawson Bekkal strongly believes that art should be used to foster dialogue between disparate communities, support intergenerational communication and be fun! She has worked on arts initiatives that support art education in Chicago Public Schools for over 10 years through the Chicago Teachers’ Center at Northeastern Illinois University. Currently she is working on economic and community development projects, with local groups like the Center for Urban Transformation, that focus on changing food production, distribution and consumption patterns to better support health, wealth, connection and capacity within urban communities.

Yahvi Pichardo
Yahvi Pichardo is a music teacher and professional musician originally from México City. Since 2000, José has worked side by side with his father Víctor Pichardo – teaching, conducting, and performing mariachi music with Chicago Public School Students and most recently students from Cicero, IL. Some of these students had the great opportunity to perform with Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan at the Chicago Symphony Center. Yahví’s performing experience has been as a guest trumpeter for Sones México Ensemble as well as Los Pichardo, a traditional Méxican band composed of members of the Pichardo family. Yahví began exploring the world of traditional music as a toddler accompanying his father on trips throughout his native México. Yahví is highly proficient in several instruments including; voice, trumpet, guitar, vihuela, guitarron, zapateado (mexican foot tapping) and percussion.

Eva Arcentales
Paticio Gabler

Guillermo Flores