Impact
The Clemente Soto Veléz Cultural and Education Center, Inc. merges its mission to support the artistic community with a commitment to maintaining the unique character of the neighborhood. As a hub for cultural and creative expression, The Clemente provides a spectrum of services and programs that nurture artistic ventures while bolstering the local community’s identity and vibrancy.
We view the arts as essential to both civic and personal health. Through fostering a variety of artistic practices, and weaving these with community engagement and cultural dialogues, The Clemente significantly enhances individual, cultural worker, and societal well-being and resilience. This philosophy underscores the deep interconnection between a community’s health and its cultural vitality, positioning The Clemente as a key catalyst and exemplary model for fostering a culturally rich, inclusive, and thriving urban life.
Community Services
Every year, Teatro SEA, Teatro LATEA and The Clemente Soto Veléz Cultural and Education Center, Inc. organize Three Kings Day (Dia de los Tres Reyes Magos) block party and toy giveaway. It allows the community in the Lower East Side to come together and share in Latinx and Latin-American traditions. We organize a toy drive donation in conjunction with Three Kings Day, to give away toys to children who might need them.
Our resident artists also open their doors to showcase new work in a wide range of media in our annual Open Studios. The initiative is a free and open platform for the local arts that builds, sustains, and supports the thriving creative community of the Lower East Side.
The Clemente is also a proud partner and host of the International Puppet Fringe Festival (IPFFNYC), produced by Teatro SEA. The festival had its 1st edition in 2018, enveloping all public venue spaces of our historic building. The community and critically acclaimed massive occasion features more than 40 events with renowned national and international puppeteers, including film screenings and artist talks. IPFFNYC is the first ever international fringe festival dedicated to puppetry. This event takes place every other year.
Cherished summer weekends of free family friendly programs in La Plaza, our special outdoors space. August matinee and evening events full of creative experiences, diverse range of performances, workshops and vendors with a Latinx sensibility. Arte Pa’ Mi Gente is a site of celebration that offers a sense of belonging to Lower East Side / Loisaida residents.
Intergenerational Learning
The Clemente offers free classes and workshops for children, adults, and seniors of the Lower East Side that allows participants to learn skills in artistic practice, grow awareness of issues affecting our communities, and build and sustain Loisaida community connections.
Advocacy
As part of the the Latinx Arts Consortium of NY | LxNY, the Clemente Soto Veléz Cultural and Education Center, Inc., does its advocacy work, co-leading organizing efforts against the fiscal cuts to the cultural field, hosting think tanks and convenings to leverage new policies that recognize the impact of cultural work to the fabric of NYC.
We cemented our commitment to critical urbanism and welcomed the incubation of Shape of Cities to Come Institute, bringing together diverse city stakeholders to engage in dialogues and reshaping urban narratives.
Our program Historias is an expansive citywide initiative that weaves scholarly research, oral histories, and cultural programming to re-center Latinx narratives in NYC. In partnership with BORIMIX: Puerto Rico Fest, The Clemente brings together Puerto Rican artists with Latin Americans from all over New York. eMeLe-K is an annual event at Teatro LATEA that centers around Martin Luther King’s legacy, and is a forum where Afro-Latinos, African Americans and all who believe in Dr. King can actively engage in artistic exchanges that celebrate the Civil Rights movement in the US and the tremendous contributions that Afro-Latinos continue to make in society.
