Chicago-based artist and art educator William Estrada brought an infectious amount of energy and passion to UNK. A teacher for 22 years, Estrada is currently a teaching artist at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, a lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and also an art teacher at Telpochcalli Elementary. He is also the founder of The Mobile Street Art Cart which brings artmaking to the streets of Chicago. This week, Mr. Estrada was a guest at both Imagination Day and the Nebraska Art Teachers Association’s (NATA) Fall Conference where he talked about his own work and his community outreach. He also provided workshops for students and teachers.

The focus of much of Mr. Estrada’s work deals with inequity, migration, historical passivity and cultural recognition in under represented communities. On Thursday, Estrada spoke to art students from 17 Kearney-area high schools for the department’s Imagination Day event. There he showed documentation of his work in underserved communities and spoke about his own artistic philosophy and work with social activism. After his guest talk, he provided a workshop on screen printing for high school art teachers as their students were in workshops ran by UNK faculty.

Estrada also set-up his mobile art cart in downtown Kearney where the public was encouraged to make buttons. NTV News later taped a segment on Estrada which you can view on their website.

On Friday, Estrada presented at the NATA Fall Conference and set-up his mobile art cart in the middle of the Art and Design hallway where he provided screen prints for the visiting Nebraska art teachers.

To learn more about William Estrada and his work, make sure to visit his website.