Betsy Casañas

Puerto Rico

Betsy Casañas is a Visual and Public Artist, an educator, a community activist and an organizer. She is the director of A Seed on Diamond Gallery (S.O.D.) and founder of Semilla Arts Initiative. Casañas has 24 years of experience in the arts and has created over 40 murals worldwide.

“As a Latina artists who has been working in communities of color around the world I understand the importance of the people in these communities to see themselves reflected in the artwork and in the leaders of the their communities. We have been depicted in a negative light on social media, news and television as second class citizens who should be feared. I believe it is our obligation as artists to reflect the times we are living in and to highlight the people’s story and change the narrative that has been created for us. By normalizing and humanizing our collective stories we create communities that are more tolerant.”