WHITE CENTER, Wash. — Right on the border of White Center and West Seattle is Nepantla Cultural Arts Gallery.
“It’s a multiuse, multicultural art space grounded in the Chicana/Chicano, Latinx art traditions,” said artist Jake Prendez. “We wanted to create a space where not just youth, but also adults could come and create art for free.”
In Aztec, "Nepantla" means the space in between.
“For example, being Mexican American I’m not Mexican enough for Mexico and I’m not American enough for America,” Prendez said. “I’m in this ‘nepantla’ space. It’s where you heal, you create and you rejuvenate. That’s what we do here.”
White Center is an area of unincorporated King County south of West Seattle.
“What that means is that we don’t always receive the resources and funding that other areas of the city do,” said Judy Avitia-Gonzalez from Nepantla Cultural Arts Gallery. “We felt it was important to build something that would give back to our community.”
Nepantla hosts new art exhibitions every month with themes focused on marginalized communities and communities of color.
“Representation matters. Artists can come into this gallery and not have to explain their art,” Prendez said. “I was told my art was too ethnic, too gangster, [that] I couldn’t be doing art like that, Chicano art.”
“One of the things that we really try to do here is make art an accessible experience,” Avitia-Gonzalez said. “You don’t have to pay to come in here and look at the art exhibition.”
Nepantla is a welcoming space for the community to celebrate culture.
Nepantla Cultural Arts Gallery is located on 9414 Delridge Wy SW in Seattle and is open from 12-6 p.m. Thursday - Saturday, 12- 4p.m. on Sunday.
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