Welcome to Episode 28 of Arts Roll Call–a podcast for the arts curious. In this episode, host Robin Miner-Swartz talks with Theresa Rosado, artist and founder of Casa de Rosado Galeria & Cultural Center.
Meet Theresa
Theresa Rosado is a graduate of Michigan State University with a focus on Pre-Columbian and Mesoamerican culture and Chicanx/Latinx art history. She has exhibited at universities and galleries throughout the Midwest for over 30 years.
Theresa’s work is featured in the art history book “Latin American Women Artists of the United States.” Her work features imagery from her Taino, African and European ancestral experiences and mixes them with contemporary gendered and class struggle imagery, exploring intersectionalities such as nature, faith, and the subtleties of power and empowerment.
The images orchestrate a social commentary in painting as a tool for exploring a larger experience within the Latinx/Hispanic community and the construction of race both within, and outside,the Latinx community. Her vibrant visual imagery utilizes a playful disassociation, a reflection upon violent historical events created by racially motivated policies stemming from colonialism, begging the viewer to question what they see and understand.
She founded the nonprofit Casa de Rosado Galeria & Cultural Center in 2016, as a way of offering central Michigan similar Latino Club activities like those she coordinated within the Lansing School District beginning in the early 90’s.
Casa de Rosado, the only Hispanic cultural center serving central Michigan, hosts one of the largest Día de Los Muertos celebrations in Michigan as well as numerous cultural workshops. Rosado secures grants and sponsorships for the center which provides over 4,000 people a year in central Michigan and over 1,800 predominantly black & Hispanic Title 1 students with free in-class cultural art programming.
*Please note that Arts Roll Call is also available on most podcasting platforms, including Spotify and iTunes.