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The Carver Community Center and Ruby City are collaborating to present Taller Talks, an ongoing program featuring conversations with artists about their work. Taller (tah-yehr) Talks derives its name from the Spanish word for “studio” and is a virtual program that connects our audiences with artists in our community and beyond during this time of social distancing. With similar mandates to both represent and serve their communities, the Carver and Ruby City are pleased to partner together to amplify the voices of area and regional artists and to provide audiences with unique access to the creative voices of our times. Studio visits reveal so much, from the ideas artists are wrestling with, to the processes they employ. With Taller Talks, audiences will be along for the visit, enabling them entree to these personal, inner sanctums of creativity. Join us on these visits and feel free to ask your own questions of these creative practitioners.

Join us on Wednesday, June 16th at 5:30 pm for a conversation between Randy Guthmiller, Manager and artist Giovanni Valderas. To tune in, please visit Ruby City’s Facebook page.

About Giovanni Valderas:
A native of Dallas, Giovanni Valderas is the Exhibition Manager at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center. Previously, he was the Assistant Gallery Director at Kirk Hopper Fine Art and the Gallery Director at Mountain View College. He also served as an appointee by Dallas City Council as Vice-Chair of the Cultural Affairs Commission. Valderas graduated from the College of Visual Arts & Design at the University of North Texas with a Master of Fine Arts in Drawing & Painting. He has taught painting and drawing courses at the University of North Texas, Richland, and Mountain View College. He is a former member of 500x gallery, one of the oldest co-op galleries in Texas. His work has been featured in the 2013 Texas Biennial, New American Paintings Magazine, issue #108 and #132, Impossible Geometries: Curated works by Lauren Haynes at Field Projects in New York City, and 14×48.org’s temporary billboard public art project. In addition, Valderas received the Moss/Chumley Award and a micro-grant from the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas for his guerrilla site-specific projects. In 2018, Valderas resigned­ from his reappointment to the City of Dallas, Cultural Affairs Commission having served under Councilman Omar Narvaez to run for Dallas City Council to represent the neighborhood he grew up in. Valderas led a grassroots campaign where he placed a strong second.