West valley brings diverse art to the city

The west valley is bringing unique and diverse art to Phoenix, this time in the form of blue-grass jazz. The Pascal Bokar Afro Blue Grazz band is just one group that the west valley arts council is presenting in an effort to bring diverse art to the area. Sandra Bassett is the president and CEO of the group–she joined us to talk about the program.

The council was founded in 1969 and acts as a sort of liaison between artists and the 13 different municipalities in the west valley. This particular initiative, however, is specifically geared towards increasing diversity in arts programming.

“There’s a serious opportunity for arts and culture to increase engagement of people of color out here in the west valley,” Bassett said. “The West Valley Arts Council has decided to offer more programming to support that approach.”

The program is called Imprint and stands on three “pillars of success”. One surrounding African Americans in the arts, another that surrounds Hispanic culture and a new pillar that centers around the experience of indigenous people in the country.

One group of artists within the program is the Pascal Bokar Afro Blue Grazz band. “So he’s coming to educate people on how this music has evolved from Ghana, how it’s evolved from Caribbean music, how it utilizes jazz, and how it’s evolved from African culture,” Bassett said. The band is going to be playing across the state at different venues throughout the week.