Mario Ybarra, Jr.: Slanguage Studio has evolved in many ways over the past 18 years. When founded in 2002, our intent was to use our shared space and resources as a vehicle for our own artistic practices. That intent quickly shifted to us also securing space and resources for the young artists in the surrounding community who urgently needed mentoring for their art and cultural practices. That community has now grown past the confines of the area surrounding the studio and expanded to a network of artists based in the United States and around the world.

MYJ: Slanguage’s core values have developed over the years through trial and error. Try, Adjust, Fail, and Repeat has been the definitive basis for the development of our core values. We have also developed a pedagogical, six-step, troubleshooting approach that we try to implement with each project:

1. Intent
2. Content
3. Context
4. Production
5. Distribution
6. Documentation

This approach was derived from words we systematically heard in art discussions and conversations. We saw that these vocabulary words needed to be framed in a way that artists could understand and use with purpose in their practices. This six-step approach has become the foundation for Slanguage’s core value system.

Mario Ybarra, Jr.: Slanguage’s approach resonates in today’s cultural moment because it is simple and tactically proactive. First, we approach a project or students with LOVE. There is no room for a “kind of/sort of” attitude toward anything at this moment. We must approach our work with an attitude of wholehearted LOVE. Second we must SPEND TIME listening and learning from one another. Teachers learn as much from students as students learn from teachers. We must SPEND TIME getting to know one another so we can share and help each other grow in the best ways possible. Third, by approaching projects with LOVE and by SPENDING TIME, we allow and create ACCESS for others as well as ourselves!

This three-step approach to the world and our current moment might be simple, but we sometimes need simple solutions during complicated times.

Mario Ybarra, Jr.: A radical approach to arts education can be summed up by something I say all the time to people who ask: “I do not believe in an arts education … I believe in an education through art.”