Claudia Valentino

2021 Mid-Career Project Grantee | $10,000

Each One Teach One at La Alborada (New Dawn)

Claudia Valentino, a muralist since 2011, will create a large mural on prominent Latinx business, La Alborada, on Lake Street. Through the mural process she will teach 3 emerging BIPOC artists the technique of Polytab, a highly technical preparation and installation process, in order to democratize knowledge and grow the Twin Cities muralist community. She will create her own Polytab teaching methodology which will support her further development as a community engaged artist.

Born in Mexico, to parents exiled from Chile and Argentina during the oppressive dictatorships of 1976, Claudia Valentino is a muralist with more than 9 years of experience creating art that gives a voice to the community. She began working on murals with local artists and completed her development as a muralist at GoodSpace Murals shortly after immigrating to Minneapolis in 2008. Today, Claudia is an independent artist specializing in the co-creation of murals, both painted and mosaics, driven by intense community participation. Together with various artists, she creates systems and networks of connection with the community to express the wishes, challenges or messages that people want to express in each mural. Any mural that Claudia creates begins with a series of workshops or interviews where members of the community, whether they are schoolchildren or neighborhood residents, participate in learning to use muralism to express their identities and thus feel represented. Representation is one of Claudia’s most sought after goals. She conducts workshops on identity and representation in public art, and was also selected to participate in the 2019 Chroma Zone Festival, as one of twelve artists.

Valentino was a selected artist for the 2019 Chroma Zone Mural & Art Festival.

The McKnight Foundation generously enables Forecast to provide Professional Development Grants for mid-career artists seeking to expand their work in the field of public art. Forecast mid- and early-career grants are designed to support independent projects, leadership development, professional development, risk-taking, multidisciplinary approaches, and collaborative problem-solving in the field of public art.