Mundo Lindo ~ history of the program

Thought you all might be interested in the history of Mundo Lindo.

Mundo Lindo means Beautiful World in Spanish.

I created the program in 2007, and received a grant from the Kenneth A. Picerne Foundation. The grant required I partner with a non-profit and I approached Katie Ragazzi  and Escondido Children’s Museum. For the two years Mundo Lindo was funded by Picerne, I taught it year round, two days a week, for two hours each session in the Children’s Museum. (After the first year, the Picerne  Foundation rented a studio at California Center for the Arts, Escondido for the program.) Picerne also paid for an assistant for me. The Children’s museum helped with registration and used their contacts in the Escondido Public Schools to contact 4^th and 5^th grade kids. The program has always been free to the children. The Picerne grant paid me $12,000 a year, and $2,000 for materials for the lessons.

When the grant ended, in 2009, Tomoko Kuta, CCAE director of Education (at the time), approached me to continue Mundo Lindo, starting in 2010. She had witnessed the success of the program over two years and was impressed by how engaged the children were in each activity. She hired me on an hourly basis (no contract) and and for the last 4 years, I was paid only when I was at the Center teaching (about 2-1/2 hours a week). CCAE provided me with an assistant. Materials were infrequently purchased as needed.

And since 2009, has run only during the school year (no summer classes). And since ~ 2011,  the program has run one day a week, during the school year. 

Since 2009, the program has been funded by a $5,000 challenge grant (from a contact of mine) plus donations from friends of mine. (When Tomoko Kuta was Director of Education, she also wrote grants for the program.)

Children register for the classes and return week after week after week, many continuing for 2-3 years. Mundo Lindo provides art instruction and an outlet for creative expression for the kids. I create and teach a different  project and use a different medium each week. The children have two hours to work with their hands, have fun, work as a team, and get to know kids from the other schools in Escondido.

I’ve kept a blog of all the classes and projects since 2007, and it clearly illustrates the success of Mundo Lindo. http://mundolindobeautifulworld.blogspot.com/

As of now, May 2013, Mundo Lindo will no longer be offered at CCAE. I'm hoping to find a new location and partner for the fall of 2013, to continue the program in Escondido, California.