“He’d come to my office, and he’d say, I just can’t believe we’re still here,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien said Lucero would talk about forming the collective to help provide artistic opportunities that, at the time, weren’t there.
Last year during the pandemic, the collective moved out of its Santa Fe location. For decades, it was a fixture on Santa Fe Drive, helping to shape the street’s identity as an art district and Denver’s identity as a cultural hub.Īfter more than 40 years, CHAC is still around, though its future is uncertain. The Latino and Chicano artist collective was a place for local artists to show their work, attend workshops and learn from one another. Lucero helped to cofound the Chicano Humanities and Arts Council, in 1978. He wants us all to know that there’s power within through the creative process.” “He was speaking about the spirit, about the spiritual purpose within each of us. “Stevon’s mission was to put god back in the art,” Molina said, explaining that that wasn’t about a particular religion. And I guess we’ll still have his art to some extent, but we won’t have him.” “Just one of those very special people that you would rarely meet in your lifetime,” O’Brien said. He was so engaged in that conversation,” she said, adding that he always took compliments about his art with a tone of surprise and innocence despite creating art she couldn’t believe was even possible. Pretty soon, there’d be a line of people eager to talk to Lucero. O’Brien remembers that when they had shows at CHAC, someone would stop to talk to Lucero. He was a philosopher, she said, and someone who saw people as humans first. He was more than a mentor, more than a talented artist. Crystal O’Brien remembers how, when she worked as executive director at the Chicano Humanities and Arts Council, visitors and artists felt drawn to CHAC cofounder Stevon Lucero.
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