KEYNOTE SPEAKER ZARCO GUERRERO

8:30 - 9 AM Central Time Friday October 15th

Zarco Guerrero is engaging and creative; a performer and artist; a community activist and internationally known creator in the service of social change.

Zarco’s art helps to create positive social change. Zarco is internationally known for his music, poetry and theatre.

​Come to this keynote to learn about his experience, mission, and advice for community leaders.

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Short presentation followed by live Q&A. This is one of 2 keynotes accompanying 10 breakout sessions at the conference. You do not need a separate ticket to join this session.

Born in Arizona, Zarco has dedicated his artistic endeavors to create positive social change through the arts. His art includes music, poetry and theater. He has been instrumental in the development of Latino Arts statewide. He has exhibited in Mexico and throughout the United States and received international acclaim and many prestigious awards.

In 1984, PBS nationally broadcasted a one hour documentary about his art entitled "The Mask of El Zarco." In 1986 he won the Japan Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and spent one year in Kyoto, Japan. In 1993 he was awarded Arizona's Governor's Arts Award for his artistic contributions to the community.

In 2012, Zarco received the Zony Award for his groundbreaking work as a mask maker in Childsplay's production of "The Sun Serpent." The Doris Duke Foundation awarded him a grant to present theater to Latino communities via El Puente Fest held in Tempe and El Zócalo Fest at the Herberger Theater, in partnership with Childsplay.

In 2016 he became the Southwest Folklife Alliance Master Artist. In 2018 he was awarded the commission by Valley Metro to design and fabricate the light rail station at Central and Baseline in Phoenix. In 2019 he was awarded the Water Heritage Prize by the Arizona Community Foundation to create the Portal to the Past (an adorned steel cut gate 60. feet long) at Pueblo Grande Museum in Phoeix.

"Art is a statement that goes beyond mere entertainment and the decorative, unveiling the sordid and the beautiful."