Meet Naomi Wood | Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, Founder of CC Mobile Arts

We had the good fortune of connecting with Naomi Wood and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Naomi, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
CC Mobile Arts is a program borne out of the pandemic, a heightened awareness in the discrepancies of access to arts, and increased need for community care. CC Mobile Arts is a program run by Dr. Naomi Pueo Wood at Colorado College, it is an extension of the College’s non-profit model and has offered free pop-up programming in visual and performing arts around Colorado Springs and El Paso County since 2021. Inspired by the carnaval celebrations in Salvador da Bahia, Brasil where large trucks carry bands, dozens of loud speakers, and performers the CC Mobile Arts truck features a fold out stage, rooftop speakers, a solar-powered generator, and a full stock of arts and crafts supplies. Seeing the ways that the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated social inequalities in our community and the deep collective sadness that many of us felt being unable to gather and build extended communities inspired the foundation of this project. The objective is to create opportunities for people across diverse communities to gather, share their unique stories, and engage in artistic creation and appreciation in a free and accessible way.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
The work of CC Mobile Arts is the uplift local visual and performing artists; we are proud to work with a diverse range of mediums and a series of individuals all committed to making Colorado Springs a more art-filled and arts-accessible city. The CC Mobile Arts truck features the artwork of three local artists, Rosario Weston, Kevin Johnson, and Diego Arnedo and is a mobile gallery as it rolls down the streets of the city and visits our diverse neighborhoods. The events that we organize feature dance, painting, crafting, concerts, and ways for attendees to engage with both our natural environment and social issues that impact our city. My creative work is curatorial. Curating the artwork that has branded the truck and creates a visual story of who are the citizens of this city. The events and artists that are featured at our events are part of my curatorial process that seeks to uplift a narration of Colorado Springs in its rich history of Hispano, Chicano, and Mexican American cultures, of African American resistance and perseverance, of Indigenous territories and world views. A widespread narrative of Colorado Springs tells of military bases, conservative politics, and evangelical churches. Folks visit Colorado Springs to enjoy the natural outdoor spaces like Garden of the Gods and Tava Mountain (Pikes Peak). But, these stories are partial and contribute to ongoing invisibilization of the not-so-distant history when Colorado was part of México, when settlers arrived and transformed the landscape through importing trees and appropriating lands and water. My curatorial work contributes to a long history of artists, activists, and community members who have struggled and persisted in this city with devotion.

It has been challenging to do this work from within an institution like Colorado College that claims to be “antiracist” and concerned with healing relationships with local communities but has not supported the project’s sustainability. We have been celebrated and buoyed by community support, students’ enthusiasm, and committed team of workers and artists in spite of Colorado College administration.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to shout out so many people who encouraged and inspired this project. Idris Goodwin, former director of the Fine Arts Center, American playwright, rapper, essayist, and poet and current Artistic Director of Seattle Children’s Theatre was a huge fan of the project in its early stages. He talked about the importance of arts on the streets, community engagement, and transforming the ways that we think about who creates arts, who it is for, and who is represented. Ashley Cornelius, poet laureate of the Pikes Peak Region, co-founder of Poetry719, poet, speaker, and author is another inspiration and supporter. Her unwavering commitment to creating spaces for poetry, creative expression, and telling a narrative of a diverse Colorado Springs continues to inspire this project. adrienne maree brown’s book “Emergent Strategy” inspires the ways the project approaches social change and the impact that each small event can have on the overall well-being of the city and our various communities. Her text and activism encourages us to reflect on the potential we have to shape change, following Octavia Butler’s call. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with community leaders and organizers in partnership with SURJ, Showing Up for Racial Justice, that helped connect me to activism and civic engagement in Colorado Springs starting in 2016.

Website: https://www.coloradocollege.edu/other/mobile-arts/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ccmobilearts/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cc-mobile-arts-b85a2631a

Image Credits
One of the photos is by Photos by Lynné Bowman Cravens for the Galleries of Contemporary Art at UCCS, 2024. The photo where there are two tables : one on either side of the truck. All other photos are courtesy of CCMA staff.