Happy New Year, and thank you to all of our community members who have made 2022 an incredible year at the Bi-National Arts Institute and El Centro! El Centro Café and Community Center will have new hours, starting on January 9th, 2023!
As the new year begins, we are reflecting on the past year at El Centro Café and Community Center and the Bi-National Arts Institute. We are grateful for the support of our community and our sponsors for giving us the opportunity to do this work, and we are grateful for the wonderful memories we have made.
In 2022, El Centro was able to increase the opening hours at our youth run café, to Monday through Friday, and we have been able to offer a before school special to local students. We had DJ classes during the summer, and we also had a wonderful time hosting a Thanksgiving community dinner.
We are thankful to Southeast Arizona Renovation, LLC, for the acquisition of two buildings at 3841 and 3843 S. Towner Ave, the future site of El Centro.
The Bi-National Arts Institute has provided funding for music education at Greenway and Naco Schools. They have offered guitar and singing classes at the 20-30 building in Naco, and singing classes in Cuauhtémoc, Sonora.
The Concert Without Borders took place at the border wall in Naco in October. This event was an amazing collaborative effort, with performances from music education students at Naco and Greenway schools, students from Tecnológico de Monterrey in Hermosillo, Desert Sounds Mariachi from Phoenix, Arizona, La Coral Intérnacional, musicians from Bisbee, and fire performances from Incandescence and Cirque Roots.
Thank you to Carolyn Toronto's for capturing these images from the concert!
We are excited about our plans for 2023! We are planning workdays to restore the two historic buildings, to include Youth Job Skill programs related to renovation. We also plan to relocate El Centro to this new location. We will increase the opening hours at El Centro, opening before and after school, Monday- Friday. We are planning programs for computer literacy and language acquisition. We will be offering Youth Job Skill programs. We are also excited to host another Thanksgiving community dinner next year, and other community events
The Bi-National Arts Institute continues to fund music education at Greenway Elementary and Naco Schools, and there are concerts planned with Bisbee Unified School District in March and May. The Bi-National Arts Institute will continue to offer guitar and singing classes at the 20-30 building in Naco and singing classes in Cuauhtémoc. A concert is planned at the border in early May, to celebrate Día de los Niños. Music students on both sides of the border will participate. We are excited to plan our next Concert Without Borders at the end of September 2023!
We are incredibly grateful to our community and sponsors for making the work that we do at El Centro Café and Community Center and the Bi-National Arts Institute possible.
May this new year be full of adventure and growth for all. We hope to share many happy memories with our community in 2023!
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