APA San Diego and MOPA Culture & Cause

APA San Diego and MOPA present a special evening presentation with three photographic artists to support and celebrate these amazing women and their cause driven work.

The panel will cover topics such as diversity within the industry, share their personal stories and experiences and discuss their creative process and activism.

Fundraiser

This event is a fundraiser to benefit three youth organizations that each artist is passionate about. Your support will help raise funds to further the goals and mission of the following organizations: 

Las Fotos Project

The Smart Project

The AjA Project

Our guest panelists include: Cara Romero, Nitashia Johnson and Morgan DeLuna

ABOUT THE PANEL

Cara Romero based in Santa Fe, NM, was born in Inglewood, CA and raised between the rural Chemehuevi reservation in the Mojave Desert and the urban sprawl of Houston, TX. Her identity informs her photography, which is a blend of fine art and editorial photography. Her award-winning work is included in many public and private collections internationally. Her practice is shaped by years of study, and a visceral approach to representing Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultural memory, collective history, and lived experiences, from a Native American female perspective.

Donations will be made to Las Fotos Project.

Nitashia Johnson is a multimedia artist and educator from Dallas, Texas who attended Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. She went on to become an alum of Texas Woman’s University in 2012 and the Rhode Island School of Design in 2015. She has a true passion for creating and combines her love for photography and design to help make a difference in the world. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Dallas Morning Show and she's also the creator of The Self Publication photographic book series. In 2019, she became one of the first women selected for the Sony Alpha Female Creator-in-Residence program. 

For the past year, she's worked hard on The Smart Project, a creative after-school program structured for teens and aspiring mentors living in North Texas. 

Donations will be made to The Smart Project.

Morgan DeLuna was born and raised in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, and relocated to Southern California in 2004. She has a background in the performing arts and was a precursor to her visual arts practice. Using a conceptual approach she explores the human condition and liminal space. Themes around the relationship between identity, appearance, and human connection are the focus of her work. 

Morgan's work has been exhibited in spaces nationally and internationally including the San Diego Art Institute, Los Angeles Center of Photography, and FotoNostrum in Barcelona. In addition to exhibitions, her work has been in published in SHOTS Magazine and Diffusion Annual.

Donations will be made to The AjA Project.