On Thursday September 22, 2005, National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia presented Herminia Albarrán Romero with a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship in a ceremony on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. Herminia Albarrán Romero is a master papel picado (the art of Mexican paper cutting) artist and altarista, a creator of altars and offerings. Originally from San Francisco de Asis, Mexico, Herminia now resides in San Francisco, CA. This month she is offering a series of workshops at San Francisco’s Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts to teach interested participants how to create paper flowers, papel picado, pan de muertos (bread of the dead), and the art of assembling a traditional altar. Workshops are open to the public and meet Saturday afternoons throughout October. Herminia’s altar will be exhibited in the gallery at Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts from November 2-30, 2005. For more information visit the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts’ website. The workshops are offered with support from ACTA’s Folk and Traditional Arts Mentorship Initiative funded by the Walter & Elise Haas Fund.
