File:Chris Castillo Interview, Spare Parts SA (IA chris-castillo-interview).mp3

Adam Garza [00:00:00] Hi, my name's Adam Garza, in the intro to Music and Arts Nonprofits class at UTSA, and this is in fulfillment for an assignment to record an artist involved with nonprofit work.

Adam [00:00:20] And with me today is Chris Castillo.

Chris Castillo [00:00:27] And I am primarily a visual artist and I have had experience working in the nonprofit sector for a decade and I currently am a teen librarian for the San Antonio Public Library System. Happy to be here. Thank you for having me, Adam.

Adam [00:00:44] Thank you for joining me, Chris. Now, currently, what nonprofits are you active in?

Chris [00:00:51] So currently, I'm in I'm active in a nonprofit organization called Spare Parts. The mission of spare parts is to advance creative re-use through the arts. What that means is that we promote sustainability, re-use, recycling, upcycling, being creative with the waste that we produce as consumers and businesses. And we also work directly with educators and artists who might not have access to all of the resources that they need. And I've been involved with this nonprofit ever since it was founded. So I started as a volunteer and worked my way through as a board member where I currently am serving. So that's my role, I'm one of the board members for Spre  and we'll get into what that means and how that looks. That is the current nonprofit that I am working with.

Adam [00:02:10] And can you tell you what drew you to them since you started as a volunteer, how you found Spare Parts?

Chris [00:02:18] That is a great question. You know, just within my own network of people in the San Antonio art community, there are people that have passion projects and are really passionate and driven to be the change that they want to see in the world, as cheesy as that sounds. And my friend Mary Cantu, I met her while I was working, I met her when I was interning at Art Pace, an artist residency. I became interested in working with Spare Parts when it was founded just through the network of community here in San Antonio. I started interning at a nonprofit arts organization called Art Pace and that's where I met Mary Cantu and Mary is the founder of Spare Parts. It was just a genius idea where in Mary and volunteers and businesses would all come together for a common goal of reducing trash. You know, one of the motto that the organization uses often is trash is failure of the imagination. And what that means is an organization like Spare Parts connects businesses and individuals that have extra things and connects that with people that need those things, be them artists or educators, especially educators who might not have the budget or the resources necessary to have art supplies for hundreds of students in their district or what have you. So not nonprofit... [inaudible] There are passion projects that people will create. They don't always end up being a nonprofit and honestly, spare parts did not start as a nonprofit. It started as an idea. And that idea grew; that idea grew and became a nonprofit. We have a board and an executive director. We have different titles and responsibilities. We have bylaws. We we did all of the paperwork that was necessary to become a registered nonprofit with the Internal Revenue Service. Many hours, lots of dedicated people and  I guess I- I want to say: for anybody that might be interested in starting a nonprofit, just start. You might not have everything you need at the start, but just start.

Adam [00:05:52] You mentioned that you have, everybody has, their roles in the positions and whatnot. What is yours and what do you do?

Chris [00:06:00] So my role on the board of spare parts has changed over time. Initially, one of the programing features of spare parts is a program called Mini Art Museum. And the Mini Art Museum is a traveling art museum. It features real contemporary artists whose works can be found in collections of museums, contemporary art collections, the Mini Art Museum as a collecting institution. And, initially, my role on the board was as a committee member for the Mini Art Museum, and the structure of our board has changed. And now I'm just on the regular board of spare parts. There are around nine of us and we each have different- we each bring different things to the table where, I've worked in a nonprofit arts organization and I had worked there for 10 years and made lots of contacts in the artist community here in San Antonio and I'm able to be kind of a connector for people and for things to come to fruition, so I think that's kind of my role in the board. But, in addition to that, we're also responsible for fundraising and for steering the organization at a higher level, not bogged down on the day to day operations. That's what our executive director and our staff do. But at the higher level, where do we want to see that organization grow and who are the city leaders and business people that we need to be in touch with to help sponsor an event? Or a program? So that's kind of what we focus on, the higher the higher level of the nonprofit organization. The financials, the long term planning.

Adam [00:08:27] And previous to that you had mentioned your work, in what you just said, you talked about programing. What kind of functions or programs does spare parts actually put out? What does that connection of waste and artists actually look like?

Chris [00:08:50] So in the past, for many years, spare parts did a big materials giveaway [inaudible] arts fair and materials give away. This would be done at different locations, but mostly at Wonderland of the Americas mall where we would take over usually like two storefronts and we would have a big donation drive. We'd have a list of acceptable donatable materials and we would also have contacts at businesses and they could give us extra things that they wouldn't know what to do with. Like, I had at one point in my car or something like, I don't want to over or underestimate let me think (counting) thirty thousand to VHS cases. So, you know, it's things like that when a business wants to get rid of things and they don't necessarily want to throw it away because they say somebody could do something with this, I'm sure. So we would be the interloper and we would intercept that kind of refuse and make it so that a teacher would be able to turn all of those VHS cases into, one teacher made grid mosaic. Which is, you know, wonderful, but you know art can be made out of anything. And that's another important takeaway, and motto: that art can be made out of anything.

Chris [00:10:49] Did I answer your question?

Adam [00:10:52] Yes. Are there other programs beyond the one you just mentioned?

Chris [00:11:02] So our programing, sorry. Other things that we do is professional development for teachers. So teachers will come to us and we can help figure out ways to grow professionally through educating them on ways that they can reuse materials in their classroom. We also get contracted through school districts to provide art class; basically, when the school district doesn't already have art teachers there. We also partner with government agencies. So, there's a young men's correctional facility and we go in and provide programming there for that audience. We also are hired by other organizations to provide our services for their events. So an example of that is the organization called Ruby City would hire spare parts to. To provide activities and programming that aligns with that organization and uses us to facilitate it. So, at Ruby City, they do an event called Bubble Fest and there are lots of different aspects of Bubble Fest, but I think all of our programming is net-zero waste. So, when you go to Bubble Fest you're going to be drinking out of reusable cups, there [are] cloth napkins there is no waste generated at these kinds of events. And, we also can provide take-home art activities that happen with the support of people that donate materials and supplies. That is an example of the kinds of different programing that spare pARTS provides.

Adam [00:13:35] Excellent! Stepping away from spare parts specifically and focusing maybe on you; so you and I met via the library. Have there been skills or tools that you've learned from either the library or your nonprofit work translated to the other?

Chris [00:14:04] I would say so, yes. So I am probably the poster child of internships and volunteering. I think that it's incredibly important to get your foot in the door and volunteer if you can because that's a way where you can get hands-on experience in a place and find out if it's what you're really passionate about. Don't be afraid to volunteer somewhere, it could change your life. And in my case, all of the places that I've worked have been places where I had previously volunteered. I volunteer. I interned at Art Pace in the archives department and then they hired me on, and I went through the whole organization in various capacities where I eventually ended up working there and my last role there was the Residency and Archives Associate. So I worked with the repository of collections that we had and also worked with all of the incoming artists, the residents, as well as all of the curators. So Art Pace will always be near and dear to my heart. At the same time that I was working there, I also volunteered at the San Antonio Public Library because libraries are also near and dear to my heart. I studied library science and eventually became a full-time librarian with the San Antonio Public Library System. So I think even if the end goal of possibly being hired where you're volunteering isn't your main objective in wanting to volunteer, volunteer anyway. Your time and your skills, your knowledge, everything that you bring to the table is so unique to you. It's so valuable and it's so needed in the world. You know, right now, people are wondering how they can help during a time like now where we have a global panic, and there is a need for people to have food. So, you know, a really critical place where people can volunteer right now is the San Antonio Food Bank. But beyond that, there are lots of organizations that are aching for people's help and support right now. If you can volunteer support in some other way. If you can provide some kind of skill or service in-kind, that's a fantastic way to kind of help people up, help build the community up and help support nonprofits.

Adam [00:17:14] It's funny that you mentioned specifically the San Antonio food bank; tangentially related to that, the president of the food bank gave a TED talk talking about the benefits of volunteering and he touched on a lot of the points you just made, and I think that is pretty fabulous.

Adam [00:17:45] Back at the library, you are the teen librarian and, as being a product of lots of volunteering, how do you raise volunteer attendance? How do you get all your volunteers?

Chris [00:17:59] That is a great question. So part of the roles and responsibilities of teen librarians for the San Antonio Public Library system is that we are also the volunteer liaison for wherever we're placed. I happen to be at the Parman Branch Library at St. Oak, it's a really long title. As the volunteer liaison, I came on board there in the summer of 2019 and I was informed that there would be kind of a stronger volunteer presence than normal, but it eventually grew to kind of beyond my scope of understanding. I don't know what it is about this area, but people, especially teen high school students are so eager to volunteer. So, in the month of February before this whole COVID-19 thing shut down libraries in person, I had fifty seven active volunteers for the month of February. So, hundreds of hours! I am fortunate to be in a position where I don't have to actively recruit volunteers and they are spreading through word of mouth, their experiences that they like being at the library, that they love libraries, they love being able to help libraries in whatever capacity that they can. You know, everybody again, brings different skills and strengths to the table, whether that's illustration, being good with numbers and organization, being good with hands on activities like making crafts. There are lots of different tasks that volunteers accel at and really dive deep in, and enjoy, and help out with, but that's not always the case. I think you have to find your community of interest and that's your responsibility to work to help raise volunteers. I can guarantee you that there are people out there in the world that are interested in the things that you are interested in. You just have to find them. I guess it's easier said than done, right. But there are web sites where you can find volunteers; networking, social media, social media is a great place to find volunteers. All of the above.

Adam [00:21:00] What a beautiful problem to have, you just have like, volunteers falling over to come help you.

Chris [00:21:06] Yeah, I could. I couldn't exactly tell you what it is. I could tell you it's Chris Castillo, they come to volunteer with me.

Adam [00:21:13] [laugher] Hardly!

Adam [00:21:19] In that, you mentioned the virus. How has that affected your nonprofit operations?

Chris [00:21:30] Wow, that is the can of worms today. So, a lot of the grants that spare parts had petitioned and had written proposals for happened right before COVID-19 really stopped everything here in the US. We had five active grants that were out and they were all written in such a way that they were reliant on being able to physically, in person, carry out the programming that those grant funds would underwrite. So as it stands, we don't expect to receive any of those funds. That's not to say that spare parts is still not being operationally sound. We are operationally sound right now through our previous 2019 grant. We are operationally sound thanks to our 2019 season of grants that we had received. But, COVID-19 has really stopped in our tracks things like our materials give away, other income generating events that we were counting on, like the Big Give. Our nonprofit has applied for emergency funding and we probably will not hear back to know if we've received that kind of funding for another four months. So as an organization, it's a really tough time, tough times. But I think every arts organization and almost every nonprofit [is] very scared right now. It's a very hurry-up-and-wait kind of time right now, but we remain hopeful and- we remain hopeful. Period, full stop.

Adam [00:23:53] Full stop. Have there, while remaining hopeful, have there been solutions to any of the walls that you've hit in the meantime of, maybe, continuing to deliver some sort of programming? Or has that come to a stop?

Chris [00:24:14] No! Life finds a way, and so we are figuring out with our, with the contracts that we do have, how we can still provide our service to the public. So whether that means providing that service digitally or lesson plans, we're still in the process of understanding what we can do with what we have. And I think that that's underlying, that's the underlying message of the organization: what we have is all we need. And so if we can offer our knowledge set digitally, we're in the process of figuring out how we can make that happen. Now, in terms of connecting the physical with people who need it, we don't have a solution for that, right now, anyway. But I think that with time, we will have to figure things out because we know one of our main goals as an organization is to have a physical space where we can- where we have a warehouse, and we have a dock, and we have a retail store, or we have a meeting space, you know, the whole nine yards. Even though we can't meet in real life, we're gonna have to figure out ways that we can still accomplish what we need to accomplish.

Adam [00:26:04] Do you have any insight or advice for any other organization or individual that can be applicable in what you guys have done in light of the virus?

Chris [00:26:19] I think that having a very strong board, having a really strong foundation, having restricted funds, for example, being very fiscally prudent, being ready to have kind of those lean times is really, really important because most non-profits, even businesses, never plan for the worst, and I think that you have to. We are still operationally sound, you know. We have expenses that still have to get paid whether or not COVID-19 is a factor or not. We have rent, we have internet, we have those kinds of things, we have to pay an executive director, we pay our staff. Those things don't stop. So, be an advocate for those who might stand to lose the most in a situation and prepare! Prepare for the worst.

Adam [00:27:54] Well, Chris, I think you answered all my questions. Thank you for doing this.

Chris [00:28:01] Thank you so much again for having me. It was my pleasure and my honor, Adam.

Adam [00:28:07] Thank you. It was lovely.