EN 
ES Meet Angel
Angel has been a student at Youth Orchestra Salinas (YOSAL) for over a year. Angel plays the cello and hopes to join a big orchestra, be a cello teacher and go to college in the future.
“I was going through some difficult times. That’s when I started putting all of my emotions into the cello. It’s been making my life better ever since.”
-Angel Monjaraz
What is the YOSAL Mural Project?
The Central Coast Creative Corp Program is a new grant opportunity funded by the California Arts Council. The program’s goal is to invest in artists to partner with nonprofits, government agencies, and tribal governments to creatively address challenges in civic engagement, public health, climate resilience and social justice across the Central Coast. In June 2023, 23 community-based organizations were selected to receive this grant to partner with an artist on a 12-month creative engagement to further community impact. Youth Orchestra Salinas (YOSAL) was one of the well-deserved grantees. They selected Amy Burkman as their Artist Partner.
The focus of this project is to create outreach and engagement initiatives to advance Social Justice. To do this, Amy is creating murals of YOSAL students around Salinas. The murals will include QR codes that will lead the public to a documentary she’s filming. The documentary will elevate the stories of YOSAL students and highlight the important role community-based arts organizations play to help address crime, mental health and provide protective factors for our youth.