In progress …

Latin Beat Magazine, Oct, 2002 by Haydee Vicedo

Quick Facts: Name: Kathy Mas Gallegos

Birthplace: Bronx, New York - Cuban/Puerto Rican-American - Has two sons, Maceo Orlando (26) and Ramón Leandro (20) For more info. on Avenue 50 Studio, please call: (323) 258-1435 or email Kathy: ave50studio@msn.com

In a thirty minute span, about fifteen different people walk in and out of the Avenue 50 Studio one sweltering hot Los Angeles day. That day the studio's exhibit features newspaper articles, posters, artwork and other memorabilia from the well-known Chicano Moratorium movement against the Vietnam War in the '70s. One visitor reminisces about his stint as a Brown Beret and points proudly to his teenage daughter at different pictures that might have captured his likeness when he marched for a cause three decades earlier. In another corner of the room, a well-known local photographer and veteran journalist joyfully talks about how she covered many of the events that are captured on the wall, sometimes injecting a fact or two about specific events. In the middle of it all, Kathy Gallegos, the gallery's director, meets and greets these guests, welcoming everyone as if they were simply visiting her home and getting ready to look at her photo albums.

Magnificent things and ideas sometimes happen accidentally, and Avenue 50 Studio is a wonderful example of that. In the Fall of 1999, Kathy was asked to be in a photographic art exhibit and didn't have a proper darkroom to produce her work. While trying to find such a space, she discovered so much more. "I found the Avenue 50 Studio and used the back room as a darkroom, but whenever I came out of the darkroom, the space looked so large and beautiful to me. It kept calling out to me to be used as a gallery," she reminisces; and so she did. She started by asking a few friends to exhibit their work and eventually other Latino artists started coming around, interested in showing their art. Kathy believes that an alternative gallery space for Latino art in Los Angeles is needed and revels in having the opportunity to feature artists that might not have the support to do so. "Today, I rarely have enough time to do my own work, but I feel inspired to exhibit the works of others."

Kathy's natural inclination to support other artists' works stems from the person who inspired her most in life--her older sister, Amy. Kathy candidly talks about her sister who loved the arts, everything from dancing and fashion designing to music. According to Kathy, Amy had always dreamed of pursuing a career in music, but her husband and their father wanted her to stay home and raise a family instead. Amy was forced to suppress her dreams and never received the support she needed to pursue her wishes. Tragically, she had a breakdown and has been living in board and care for many years. As Kathy poignantly states, "I believe Amy is a good example of someone whose dream was destroyed, which in turn destroyed her. I believe if a person's true calling is art, they should follow their dream or it will destroy them."

In her own life, Kathy has fully embraced that her love for the arts is something that she accepts and acts upon. She has been an active part of the Chicano Art Movement since the 1980s and even participated in painting a mural at the Plaza de las Madres in Managua, Nicaragua. In 1989, she went with a group of artists and famous art historian Shifra Goldman to Cuba for the 3rd International Art Biennale, and her photography has been featured in numerous exhibits around the country. Today, she tirelessly works on making sure Avenue 50 features art that will make a statement and takes great pride in putting together exhibits that touch people. Art can really move people ... it can build a bridge between so many people. Whether it is through the lesson she has learned from her sister's forgotten dream or a gallery visitor's reaction to a painting, Kathy continues to be inspired to support the arts.