Thanks to The Ratkovich Company for dedicating a wall space in the lobby of The Bloc in Downtown Los Angeles to showcase Inner-City Arts student work. These three large paintings — made of acrylic and sequins on round stretched canvas — were created by our 2016 Summer middle school students in our visual arts studio, specifically for the space. The project was led by teaching artist Eva Perez.

“Inner-City Arts is all about enabling the underserved children of our downtown community to imagine all the possibilities in life — not just the possibilities of canvas and paint, or clay and heat, or bow and violin, but the very real possibility that they can find peace, joy and success through the arts. We want to share that absolute optimism with everyone who walks through our doors. The primary reason that we invited Inner-City Arts to join our community at The Bloc was to raise awareness in a very public manner of all the amazing work that is being done to give that sense of optimism to the children and teens in our downtown community.”

– Clare De Briere, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President for The Ratkovich Company