#Lowride4Lit – A DSTL Arts fundraiser in support of our Mobile Art Lab

Help us reach our first $8,000, and our founder, Luis, will match it through the sale of his 1969 Chevy Impala!

Mobile Art Lab Donation

$5.00 - $100.00
Donate to DSTL Arts' Mobile Art Lab Initiative and support emerging artists of all ages throughout East, Northeast, and South Los Angeles as we provide them with mentorship, arts education, and life skills development through pop-up workshops and classes with our Mobile Art Lab!



You may select the level and quantity of donation you would like to give as a gift to DSTL Arts, and you will receive a thank you note from us.



​As an IRS-recognized 501c3 nonprofit, all donations made to DSTL Arts are completely tax-deductible. Our Tax ID number is 47-1509200.



To learn more about this fundraising initiative, visit http://DSTLArts.org/Lowride4Lit.
Donate

The Origin of Luis' 1969 Chevy Impala

About 20 years ago, my dad bought a 1969 Chevy Impala Custom from a man who hired my dad to landscape his garden on a weekly basis. At the time, my dad only had a small pickup truck, and buying a "family car" was one of the several requirements he had to fulfill in order for us to have visitation rights with my dad after my parents' difficult divorce. He worked hard to fix the car, making it operable by rebuilding the radiator, doing a major tune-up, and investing in a few new parts for the suspension, braking system, and carburetor. The first day my dad picked us up in this sweet ride, I remember being excited by the possibilities it presented to us, to our relationship.

I imagined us working together, with my dad teaching me what he knew about cars, and us eventually turning it into a beautiful lowrider. I imagined us cruising the boulevards of North San Diego County in true Chicano style, bumping Curtis Mayfield's Superfly soundtrack on a booming sound system. My dad, however, being the humble man he is, never saw what I saw, and even if he did, he couldn't have afforded the costs associated with rebuilding a classic car into a show quality lowrider.

With time, the car came to be mine. When my younger brother started college, I gave my car at the time to him so that he could go to school and pick up our little sister, leaving me to take the bus to work. My dad, always the generous person he is, offered me the opportunity to take over the Impala. I gratefully accepted his offer, and the car became mine. For the past 12 years, this big, brown, 1969 Chevy Impala has been in my possession.

I've had the ability to cruise the car on occasion, investing in rebuilding the engine, keeping the car operable as best as I can; but between grad school, starting my own nonprofit, and other familial responsibilities, I've not been able to fully invest in my lowrider. And I'm okay with that.

​Because of my passion for the arts, and my deep love for DSTL Arts in particular, I've decided to part ways with my Impala, offering the money I get from the sale of this prized family car as part of a down payment for a new vehicle that will serve as the basis for our future Mobile Art Lab.
Luis in the Impala, passenger side
DSTL Arts founder, Luis Antonio Pichardo, seated in the passenger side of his father's former 1969 Chevy Impala

Mobile Art Lab Donation

$5.00 - $100.00
Donate to DSTL Arts' Mobile Art Lab Initiative and support emerging artists of all ages throughout East, Northeast, and South Los Angeles as we provide them with mentorship, arts education, and life skills development through pop-up workshops and classes with our Mobile Art Lab!



You may select the level and quantity of donation you would like to give as a gift to DSTL Arts, and you will receive a thank you note from us.



​As an IRS-recognized 501c3 nonprofit, all donations made to DSTL Arts are completely tax-deductible. Our Tax ID number is 47-1509200.



To learn more about this fundraising initiative, visit http://DSTLArts.org/Lowride4Lit.
Donate
Luis and his Impala on the streets
Luis posed in front of his favorite ride, his 1969 Chevy Impala

Mobile Art Lab – The Future of DSTL Arts' Programs

Photo of the future DSTL Arts Mobile Art Lab in action
A video screen grab from the Happier Camper website featuring the exact same setup we hope to have for our Mobile Art Lab!
With the sale of my 1969 Chevy Impala, I am committing to reinvest the amount I get for it, plus another $3,000 of my personal savings, to the purchase of a Jeep Renegade for DSTL Arts that will act as an anchor for our Mobile Art Lab. In addition to the Jeep Renegade, we will be fundraising for a Happier Camper HC-1 mini-camper where we will be able to conduct our zine-making, creative writing, and illustration workshops and mentorships for at-risk youth and adults across East, Northeast, and South Los Angeles. The combination of these two vehicles will be instrumental in helping us develop the artistic talents and entrepreneurial skills of all our program participants.

Why a Mobile Art Lab, you ask?

Simple. The costs of renting and maintaining a permanent, fixed retail space in a centralized location in Los Angeles that is accessible to the communities we serve are too prohibitive for a small arts-organization like ours. Having a way to bring art supplies and a communal work space to our communities in partnership with non-traditional arts spaces in under-served areas of Los Angeles means greater access to arts-education and entrepreneurial opportunities for the youth and adults we already serve, and more.

In our experience, it's been difficult to accommodate for our students, especially our Arts Mentorship Program students, when it comes to crafting larger-scale arts projects while meeting in shared spaces at libraries and schools. The risk of spilled paints and inks, plus the added costs of paid, on-campus teachers/advisors and custodial staff during after school hours, has kept us from fully partnering with academic institutions like we once did in years past. And the fact that many of the youth and adults we work with are on public transportation also presents a particular set of challenges when setting a workshop times and space within shared community rooms at libraries.

By providing our own workshop space, all any community center, school, or library needs to provide for us is a single parking spot for our HC-1 Camper, since it's that small, and we will provide the rest, from printers, paper, art supplies, and instructors. The Mobile Art Lab will be versatile enough to accommodate to most environments, giving greater access to technology and supplies for the creation of artworks that we can help our program participants continue selling. And don't get me started on the vending opportunities. Imagine us pulling up at a zine fest, art walk, or farmer's market with our Mobile Art Lab, providing a pop-up art gallery/zine market featuring work created exclusively by our workshop participants.

With your support, we will be able to have a wider impact in our artist community. More emerging artists from our underrepresented communities will have access to a creative space, an easily accessible space, that we can provide at any of our partnering libraries, schools, and community centers.

Help us spread the word! Donate! And I promise to match the first $8,000 we raise, for a total of $16,000 towards our Mobile Art Lab before the end of the 2017!
Mobile Art Lab Mock Up 1
The Happier Camper HC-1 Camper with the vending configuration we hope to acquire with your support!

Mobile Art Lab Donation

$5.00 - $100.00
Donate to DSTL Arts' Mobile Art Lab Initiative and support emerging artists of all ages throughout East, Northeast, and South Los Angeles as we provide them with mentorship, arts education, and life skills development through pop-up workshops and classes with our Mobile Art Lab!



You may select the level and quantity of donation you would like to give as a gift to DSTL Arts, and you will receive a thank you note from us.



​As an IRS-recognized 501c3 nonprofit, all donations made to DSTL Arts are completely tax-deductible. Our Tax ID number is 47-1509200.



To learn more about this fundraising initiative, visit http://DSTLArts.org/Lowride4Lit.
Donate
Mobile Art Lab Interior Shot
The interior of the HC-1 by Happier Camper is flexible, reconfigurable, and able to be seat up to 8 people working on zines, drawings, or creative writing projects!

Mobile Art Lab Donation

$5.00 - $100.00
Donate to DSTL Arts' Mobile Art Lab Initiative and support emerging artists of all ages throughout East, Northeast, and South Los Angeles as we provide them with mentorship, arts education, and life skills development through pop-up workshops and classes with our Mobile Art Lab!



You may select the level and quantity of donation you would like to give as a gift to DSTL Arts, and you will receive a thank you note from us.



​As an IRS-recognized 501c3 nonprofit, all donations made to DSTL Arts are completely tax-deductible. Our Tax ID number is 47-1509200.



To learn more about this fundraising initiative, visit http://DSTLArts.org/Lowride4Lit.
Donate