In the heart of el barrio, Taller Puertorriqueño and artist Betsy Casañas turn 50 together

Betsy Casañas walked into Taller Puertorriqueño for her second interview to teach an art class, and was greeted by a frazzled physical education teacher while waiting for her interviewer.

“Fantastic!” she recalled him telling her after she introduced herself. “There’s a classroom of students in the back, the teacher never showed up, go back there!”

Casañas’ interviewer arrived 15 minutes later, walked into a classroom full of working students, hired Casañas on the spot. Soon after she began teaching, she hosted her first major solo exhibit at Taller.

Casañas was 19 years old and four months pregnant. And her life hasn’t been the same since.

Next week, Taller will be celebrating its anniversary with an exhibit and mural created by Casañas, now an established Philadelphia artist.

For 50 years, the cultural community organization based in North Philadelphia has worked to preserve Puerto Rican culture and empower the community. Casañas’ story is a perfect example of the impact Taller has had on individuals and the community at large.

“It transformed everything — my approach to working in communities,” Casañas said of her experience teaching at Taller in the 1990s. “The energy that was in that area around that time was magical. It was a little hub for all of these creative folks, that if they went through Philadelphia, they went through Taller.”

As an educator, Casañas said, she found the approach to education at Taller to be refreshing. Her studio work focused on giving people who hadn’t had a traditional education an experience more like an apprenticeship than traditional schooling.

“I think we tend to lose a lot of opportunities with folks that are super gifted when we zero in on where they went to school, and don’t really focus on the individual and the talents they may have because of lived experiences,” Casañas said.

Casañas’ own opportunity to become a teacher and hold her first solo exhibit at Taller before finishing her college degree was emblematic of that approach Taller has, she said.

Now, three decades and a thriving career later, Casañas will be back at Taller to commemorate that 50th anniversary with another exhibit and mural.

Like her first exhibit at Taller, the majority of her work style is figurative and abstract. But the theme for this year’s exhibit is symbolically looking at the spaces that you and your community inhabit as your garden.

“I grew up in North Philadelphia, and I think that the biggest impact is the amount of violence you’re exposed to,” Casañas said. “When we’re creating this work, the idea is to uplift, because there’s a heaviness in the air. But there’s a lot of really beautiful things that we can celebrate that comes from this community.”

Part of the mural Casañas is designing is meant to celebrate the highlights of Taller’s last 50 years, and is an ode to the diaspora experience. The mural will incorporate nature, from the mountains to the palms of wooded areas of Puerto Rico, but in muted colors to represent that the diaspora endures. A line of tropical birds in full, vibrant color remind Casañas of the diaspora flying and migrating to different lands.

“I was absolutely thrilled when [Taller] invited me back because they made such an impact on my life,” Casañas said of her upcoming exhibit. “Taller is gonna be 50 years old this year. I’m going to be 50 this year. We met when we were 19. For me, it’s a full circle.”

Visit the opening reception of Betsy Casañas’ exhibition, “Call & Response,” at Taller Puertorriqueño on April 12, 2024, from 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. The exhibition will be on view from April 5 to May 25, 2024.