ARTWORKS NYC
New York, New York - ArtWorks NYC is a nonprofit organization that offers a visual literacy program to underserved public schools throughout NYC’s five boroughs. Volunteer instructors lead classroom workshops along guided visits to either The Met Museum or the Brooklyn Museum. The art in this program reflects NYC’s diverse school population with art from different cultures, from antiquity to present day. There, Aldanondo was a trained museum guide, guiding NYC public school children and their teachers through a walk visiting works of art they were becoming familiar with through their curriculum. Museum tours were focused on the curriculum.
This program was geared to third to fifth graders of the NYC Public School system.
CITY AS STUDIO
A form of protest to the lack of visibility and inclusion of a majority of street artists and women artists, Aldanondo took her work out into the streets of NYC. Turning to her surroundings to disrupt engrained dominating ideologies about art and painting, confronting the labels associated with street artists excluding them from the fine art scene, Aldanondo’s project asks the art world to reconsider. A project meant to bring culture into the streets, to the everyday places, to the everyday people, making the experience of art: its process and its finalized visuals available to everyone. Her work in this project binds the visual and performing arts together, with the aspect of human interaction at its core.
Solitude takes a backseat in this project, though solitude is an important aspect to the creation of most works of art, what we as artists create in solitude is based or influenced by our interactions with the world.
In her own words: “My project binds the two together. I access solitude under any circumstances, I carry it within, and can in a crowded space access it, or renounce it as needed.”
During this ongoing project she created works of art n midtown, Harlem, the Upper West Side, the Upper East Side, Central Park, the Lower East Side, the West Village, Chelsea, SoHo, Chinatown, Jackson Heights (Queens), Astoria (Queens), and Brooklyn, bringing her work and her interaction to the people of these neighborhoods and finally settling to paint in SoHo, New York.
ICELAND ART FESTIVAL
SPEAKING PRESENTATION
Presented the project she worked on while in Eyrarbakki, presenting the art exhibition which consisted of paintings on paper made by the inmates at the local prison and also by the school children at the local school.
Through the power of art, these very different groups of individuals came together as creators, demonstrating that a real community can come together through compassion and understanding of different backgrounds, creating conscience that the two co-existed in the same municipality.
The works presented shed light on the many similarities in inspiration found in the works, which spoke of hopes, dreams for the future, a love for family and love of the arts, making a clear connection to the shared humanity by these two groups.
The exhibition was presented to the public at the local community center.
This program was partly funded by the Ministry of Culture in Iceland, through a local organization.
ART FESTIVAL ICELAND
Selected to join a group of fellow international artists who came together to explore the sense of time and identity, empathy and compassion.
While there, Susana worked closely with the local town, school and with Litla-Hraun the largest prison in Iceland, to help create an art festival bringing together everyone in the community, based on the concepts of empathy and compassion, while learning about social interaction, Icelandic festivities & the social identity, and the Scandinavian welfare system.
She led a painting workshop for 40-50 inmates at the local prison.
She also led a workshop sharing her experience as an abstract expressionist artist at the local school and led a painting workshop for the 11th and 12th grades.
SUAREZ PAZ TANGO - PAINT THE MUSIC PROGRAM
Guest Artist - Aldanondo lead the painting workshop offered in connection with exploring the visual arts through music offered by NYC based tango orchestra and quartet Suarez Paz Tango, during the Roosevelt Island Arts Festival.
STUDIO IN THE STREETS
Aldanondo’s project is geared toward creating inclusion in the art world and helping artists from disadvantaged situations from remote corners of the world be seen.
She exhibited works by an artist from Florida, and three artists from the slums of Nairobi, Kenya on her wall in SoHo, NYC.
Aldanondo is always looking for ways to showcase talent from around the world.
All profits of any sales from this project benefit the artists.
The program currently hosts artists from around the world while also creating a possibility to generate income for local NYC based artists who wish to host artists in their practice.
VOLUNTEER for OTHER ARTIST'S PROJECTS
Cuquita the Cuban Doll at PS122 Gallery, East Village, New York
Ps122 Gallery for The Immigrant Biennale 2023, along with other artists I was invited to be a Cuquita for Yali Romagoza's Cuquita the Cuban Doll performance.
The Performance sought to highlight the lack of representation of women artists in ArtForum Magazine, all credit of this show/performance is of the artist, Yali Romagozam, it was not my project.
CONTRIBUTOR TO ORGANIZATIONS
Aldanondo believes in supporting organizations that work to improve the lives of others. She contributes regularly to organizations such as Rema Hort Mann Foundation, Special Citizens, The New York Foundation for the Arts, Visual Aids Annual Benefit in Chelsea, and recently took part of an exhibition with a mission to support NeonArts/Carnegie Hall through Nippon Gallery for NYC's 19th Annual New York/Tokyo Juried Exhibition.
In 2023 she was awarded a recognition by Special Citizens for her contributions since the inception of their Art Benefit Auction which helps support the programs the organization provides for their members living with autism.
To inquire about speaking presentations, cultural collaborations or a donation to an organization working to improve the lives of others, please fill out the contact form in the Contact section of the website.