OUR TEAM
Arturo Méndez-Reyes
Founder & Executive Director
Arturo Méndez-Reyes
Arturo Méndez is an arts producer working in areas of development/ fundraising, communication, event production/curation, community organizing, and cultural diplomacy in the Mission District of San Francisco, and Puebla, Mexico for over 10 years.
His work strives to curate and preserve spaces for political empowerment and community healing through cultural equity, and intersectional representation
Therese Davis
Co-Founder & Program Manager
Therese Davis
Therese Davis (Mo. Cheeskos) is an SF Bay Area Social Practice Artist, Administrator, Creative and Life Coach, Social Media Specialist, Event Planning Specialist, and Marketing Specialist Contractor. She is a certified Life and Creativity Coach who specializes in coaching BIPOCs and LGBTQ+ communities. She is the founder of the San Francisco Songbird Festival and co-founder of Arts.Co.lab. She was a Queer Rebel Resident Artist for 2022, a Co-Creator of the Immigrant Artist Network, and a Fellow and Mentor at the San Francisco Emerging Artist Professionals Program. In addition, she is a Leadership Development Coordinator, focusing on professional and individual development.
Clients are guided to take care of themselves through her coaching, which focuses on moving them away from burnout into self-care. In her work, she supports people who wish to change their circumstances or create new realities. In addition to emerging and mid-career artists, she also works with established artists and professionals. Their lives and professional growth are enhanced because they have more balance and access to their own creativity.
She is invested in healing-centered practices, restorative justice, culture- and diversity-affirming activities, and training for the community. She supports leveling up, so individual artists, educators, professionals, and change-makers can become part of the conversation moving justice forward. Her political focus is centered on human rights, fair housing, food, and social justice. As an activist, she explores the troubling persistence of the prison-industrial complex and its impact on communities of color.
Tray Smith
Communications
Tray
Tray is a San Francisco native who has an intense passion for fashion, art ventures, photography & building community.
He is a strong believer in using his talents to give back to the community and believes that everyone deserves to have their stories told and their voices heard- an advocate for black and queer visibility. He uses his business Realest Exposure to platform the voices of those who are often marginalized.
Tray is dedicated to curating, creating and contributing to safe spaces where BIPOC and queer people can be their authentic selves, and he works tirelessly to make sure that everyone has a seat at the table.
Sen Mendez
Administrative & Leadership Assistant
Sen Mendez
Sen Mendez (they/them), also known as Queen Sen, is a non-binary indigenous (Otomí and Nahua-Pipil) multidisciplinary artist, cultural practitioner, entrepreneur, and educator deeply rooted and born in the Huichin Ohlone Territory/Oakland, California.
Their artistic practice employs visual storytelling through block printing, murals, paintings, classes and community workshops by creating a space for engagement among the communities of Bay Area youth, LGBTQIA+, Indigenous, Disabled, Refugees and Immigrant individuals to empower personal narratives, envision futures of liberation, and heal intergenerational trauma.