For A Pilsen Nonprofit Gentrification Makes Promoting The Arts A Double Edged Sword

• Bianca Betancourt
• Students work on a pottery project at ElevArte in Pilsen

The steps leading up to Dvorak Park’s community center on Cullerton Street are chalked with large-scale images of sugar skulls, or calaveras in Spanish. It’s in Pilsen, after all, and although the neighborhood’s changed a lot during the past several years, it’s still a Mexican neighborhood at its heart.

“People don’t want to be inconvenienced with knowing they contributed [to gentrification],” said Thelma Uranga, ElevArte’s mentorship coordinator and current teaching artist. Mercier adds, “The media struggles [with gentrification] the same way we’re struggling with how we elect our public officials. It’s based on how many contributions they get by wealthy people—the same way the media struggles with creating a true voice to what communities might be suffering or the problems that those communities have.”

“ElevArte made me appreciate things—that you have to work for everything that you do and you can’t just start something and not finish it. It teaches you responsibility,” he says.