This month ACTA welcomes two impressive new staff members to the ACTA team to steward and facilitate the expanding ACTA Arts in Corrections (AIC) program, now working in 16 prisons throughout the state. Antonio Delfino steps into his role as Program Manager, leading the expansion and overall management of the program, while Jamin Temblador takes on serving Southern California institutions as Program Coordinator.
Read more about Antonio + Jasmin below!
ANTONIO DELFINO serves as the Program Manager for the Arts in Correction program, based in Fresno. Before joining ACTA his work spanned various correctional institutions and capacities including state prisons, juvenile halls, county jails, college classrooms, and grassroots nonprofit organizations. He has worked for California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation as both a clinical social worker and prerelease teacher. Most recently he worked for a Los Angeles based non-profit, the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, as a College Program Coordinator at two prions in California’s Central Valley.
He has worked with a number of diverse populations including individuals experiencing homelessness and mental illness, youth at risk, youth offenders, HIV patients, inmates, and college students. His interest in social justice led him pursue a career in social work. He graduated from California State University, Chico, with a Master’s degree in Social Work. Antonio is committed to working with the most vulnerable and understands the importance of rehabilitation as the vehicle to positive transformation. Antonio will take the lead in the overall management of the AIC program. Beyond his role with ACTA, Antonio is a percussionist, he collects vinyl records, and deejays in his spare time–everything from soul, to jazz, oldies, and Latin music.
What are you looking forward to most about your new role at ACTA?
My interest in working with the incarcerated relates back to my personal commitment to social justice and systems change. I feel a deep connection working within the constructs of prison because it takes a high degree of perseverance to overcome the many bureaucratic obstacles that prison presents. Such challenges make working within the system highly rewarding and even more valuable when you witness positive change and transformation happen in an environment that is at times counterproductive to healing.
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JASMIN TEMBLADOR serves as the Program Coordinator for the Arts in Corrections program, based in Los Angeles. Jasmin will be coordinating the launch and sustainability of arts residencies at Southern California institutions. Through AIC programming, Jasmin will be working alongside artists who bring traditional arts and heritage-based curriculum to students in the facilities. Jasmin is an alumna from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a Bachelors of Arts in Anthropology. She is currently pursuing a dual degree at Goucher College in Cultural Sustainability and Management. Jasmin is a first generation Chicana, and a proud daughter of Mexican parents. She grew up in South Central Los Angeles, a rich community in history and culture. As a cultural sustainability advocate, Jasmin has worked alongside diverse communities to enhance and leverage the voices of underrepresented communities, traditions, ways of life, and cherished spaces. She has hands on experience working directly with community members, while at LIFT-Los Angeles, as a case manager, volunteer coordinator, and operations coordinator. Jasmin has conducted research in art education as a UCLA Arts IN Scholar, and has explored the diverse culture and history of South Central Los Angeles through community narrative. She supported the creation of community murals within South Central Los Angeles and SPARC Art. Her graduate research is focused on cultural continuity from one generation to the next, in support of the sustainability of culture within families and cultural communities. Jasmin has a passion for learning and dancing Folklorico, a tradition passed on from her mother. She grew up singing in choir as a child, and more recently, with the Gospel Choir at UCLA.
What are you looking forward to most about your new role at ACTA?
I am looking forward to ensuring that cultural democracy and cultural rights are accessible for all people within my role. I am excited to see how our work with Arts in Corrections brings cultural heritage curriculum from traditional artists to students in the prisons, and how the program supports the well-being of all participants. I look forward to applying the knowledge I have gained from my masters program, and the work within my own community, to support the sustainability of culture from generation to generation.
