Sachaqa Centro De Arte

I’m grateful for the opportunity to participate in this program and I took away valuable experiences that helped me grow artistically and personally. At the same time, I felt like people were oversimplified and our complexities were not really honored — which is so important in an artist space. Too often we weren’t truly listened to, and that led to misunderstandings and limited our processes. I also noticed that Trina at times spoke poorly about other artists in ways that simplified or reduced them, which contributed to this dynamic of not honoring people fully. In my case, I shared vulnerably that I never felt at home in the U.S. and had taken a leap of faith to leave, yet later an image was edited to put a U.S. flag on my body without my consent. When I expressed discomfort and asked for it to be removed, my messages were ignored. I also shared that I am extremely allergic to cats and was assured they would not be in the space. When they were present near my house, instead of my allergy being taken seriously, I was told to “just hiss at them,” and my needs were reframed as a nervous system issue. Since exposure can cause anaphylaxis for me, this left me feeling unsafe and dismissed. On a practical level, I also found the program unreliable at times. We were told we would have certain support — such as someone to translate or scheduled activities — and then these would simply not happen, with no explanation. This made it harder to plan and fully engage in the work. Overall, I value what I gained, but I believe the program needs to grow by truly listening to participants, honoring their full complexity, respecting their identities, taking health and safety concerns seriously, and providing reliable support.