Vincent and Mary Price Legacy Award
Cástulo de la Rocha is President and CEO of AltaMed Health Services Corporation. Under his visionary leadership, AltaMed has transformed from a storefront barrio clinic in East Los Angeles into the largest Federally Qualified Health Center in the nation. Mr. de la Rocha is the recipient of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research Impact Award in Community Service, the Los Angeles Business Journal's Lifetime Achievement award, the Leader in Action award from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute's Medallion of Excellence, and the Aaron L. Brown Memorial Public Service Award from the National Association of Community Health Centers. Over the past thirty years, he has assembled the AltaMed Art Collection, which champions the works of emerging and established artists who reflect the history, achievements, and struggles of underserved communities. Mr. de la Rocha holds degrees from the UC Berkeley, the UC Santa Barbara, and a Certificate of Management from Stanford University.
Cultural Leadership Award
Leslie Ito is Executive Director of the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena. Ms. Itohas served as the President and CEO of the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, Program Director for Arts and Health at the California Community Foundation, Director of Grant Programs at the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Executive Director of Visual Communications, and Program Associate at the Ford Foundation. Ms. Ito served on the board of the Little Tokyo Community Council, Americans for the Arts, TELIC Arts Exchange, and Films By Youth Inside. The Durfee Foundation awarded Ms. Ito the prestigious Stanton Fellowship focusing on how community-based, ethnic specific organizations can reinvent themselves for a new generation. She was appointed by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a member of the Japan House, Los Angeles Steering Committee, and participated in the 2017 Japanese American Leadership Delegation through the U.S. Japan Council. A native of Los Angeles and a Yonsei, fourth-generation Japanese American, Ms. Ito attended Stanford University Graduate School of Business’ Executive Program for Non Profit Leaders and holds a MA from the University of California, Los Angeles and a BA from Mount Holyoke College.
Steven Y. Wong was born in Los Angeles and spent his early years in Monterey Park and the Westside. He has since returned to the Eastside with his own family and is currently the curator at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, the longest running institution in Los Angeles devoted solely to exhibiting art. Previously he was the Interim Executive Director and the senior staff curator at the Chinese American Museum (CAM) where he developed and implemented both contemporary art and history exhibitions, including a permanent exhibition examining the beginnings of the Chinese American community in Monterey Park. Previous to his work at CAM, he was the Director of Digital Literacy Initiatives at the Little Tokyo Service Center, and has lectured at UC Santa Barbara and was an adjunct professor at Ventura College and Pasadena City College in Asian American Studies, History and Art Studio Departments. He has exhibited his art in museums and galleries in Los Angeles and New York. Steven holds a Masters in Asian American Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles (1998) and a Master in Fine Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara (2000).
Thomas Silliman Vanguard Award
Gala Porras-Kim (b. 1984, Colombia; lives and works in Los Angeles) received an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and an MA in Latin American Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has had solo exhibitions at the Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito (2018); LABOR, Mexico City, Mexico (2017); 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica (2013); FOXRIVER, Singapore, (2010); and Dobaebacsa, Seoul, South Korea (2010). Selected group exhibitions include Tina Kim Gallery, New York (2018); FRAC Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, France; Hab Galerie, Nantes, France; Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea (2017); Serpentine Gallery, London, UK (2017); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2017); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2016); Triangle France, Marseilles, France (2015); and La Central, Bogotá, Colombia (2011). Porras-Kim is the recipient of the Artadia Award (2017), the Rema Hort Mann Foundation grant (2017), Joan Mitchell Foundation Award (2016), Creative Capital grant (2015), Tiffany Foundation Award in 2015, and the California Community Foundation Fellowship (2013). In 2019 she will curate a project at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.