CENTRO CULTURAL HISPANO
Centro Cultural Hispano has a program, ArtSpace, that provides a chance for kids to get involved in the arts. ArtSpace’s founder Linda Kelsey-Jones recently retired from her position as program director, leaving the space wide open for her predecessor Debangana Banerjee, who was already teaching some art classes there.
Banerjee is no stranger to working with kids, as she has been a teacher for many years as well as an artist. She knows she could make a living only creating art, but she “cannot live without teaching” because she believes it is very important.
“I am from Santiniketan, which is in West Bengal, India. I did my master degree there in print making from Visva-Bharati University. And then I did my second masters at LSU, Louisiana State University, in print making, in Baton Rouge. And then we moved here because my husband Suparno Banerjee, he is a professor in the English department [of Texas State University],” Banerjee said. “I continued my art. I was a freelance artist. Then I started working at Wonderland School, which is a private school in San Marcos as an elementary art teacher. And before joining Centro, I was also a library staff at the Luling Public Library.”
Debangana Banerjee
As for Banerjee’s art, it is colorful and powerful with intricate patterns making up the larger forms. She is a printmaker but is currently without a studio so has been focusing on painting and collage making. Her subject matter focuses on personal topics as well as nature.
“My art is on people, time and space, like how I feel as an insider and an outsider, how I deal with my two homes — one in India, one here,” Banerjee said. “My surroundings always are reflected in my art. When I was in Santiniketan, where nature played a big role, that reflected in my artwork. And then I was in Baton Rouge, so the Mississippi River and the oak trees, they took an important role in my art. And after coming to San Marcos, of course, the San Marcos River [is reflected in my art].”
Banerjee said she couldn’t be the ArtSpace program director without the support of her predecessor Kelsey-Jones and her supervisor Gloria Salazar, who is one of the founding members of Centro. And she needs all the support she can get as running ArtSpace is no small task and involves handling a variety of classes across many age groups.
“My work there is to supervise all the art classes; we have classes for three to five year olds, six to nine year olds and ten to teens. Along with that, we also teach crossroads,” Banerjee said. “Crossroads is a special education program run by SMCISD. … the program for special students who have different kinds of disabilities, basically, and we teach them an art class there for an hour every week; they are from 18 to 24 [years old].”
Each of the classes Banerjee teaches also incorporates two TXST Art Education student teachers as well.
“I went to the University, gave a talk and told the students about the opportunities about volunteering at Centro, and I think that worked because two or three students from her class joined. Then another professor, Kevin Jenkins, brought the health class to Centro in the beginning of the semester, and I gave them a tour and told them the opportunities there and how they can get teaching experience,” Banerjee said, adding that the word then passed from student to student. “So all my classes have two [student] teachers, and it’s going on very well.”
Banerjee has a teaching philosophy that centers around the importance of educating students about nature, diversity and ensuring that they read.
“Then [I enjoy] giving ideas about diversity, which is also very important to me — people’s lives around the world or various festivals like Diwali or Chinese New Year and Hispanic Heritage Month,” Banerjee said. “Reading is extremely important and [that involves] encouraging children to go to the library, introducing them to illustrators, authors, artists, poets, showing them picture books, showing them great masterpieces, and discussing with them about the style and idea; It doesn’t matter their age.”
Banerjee started doing shadow theater with her daughter during the pandemic to “get rid of screen time and engage her in creativity.” She has taught classes on how to make the shadow boxes at the San Marcos Public Library and has a YouTube channel where one can watch those performances.
“On my YouTube channel, there is a playlist of all the shadow theaters, and most of them have English translation; I do them in my own language, which is in my mother tongue, Bengali,” Banerjee said. “Making an environment where they can process their emotions verbally and visually is very important to me, and listening to the children patiently and encouraging them to imagine, that’s also important.”
Banerjee added that while Hispanic culture is very important to Centro, they are expanding to incorporate cultures and activities from across the world.
Watch Banerjee’s Shadow Theater at this link youtube.com/@DebanganaBanerjee, and learn more about her art at this link debangana.weebly. com. Learn more about Centro’s art classes here: sanmarcoscentro.org/programs. html.
