Anthony Garcia's Birdseed Collective Gains Official Nonprofit Status

When you're pushing art and community, your work is often without profit — and you often don't have the time or money to deal with filing all the right forms with the IRS to gain tax-exempt status. But Anthony Garcia Sr.’s Birdseed Collective is now an official nonprofit. “It’s just the next step," says Garcia, a 2015 Westword MasterMind winner. "I mean, we’ve been doing the same work for so long, it’s not news as much as progress.”

The Globeville native has been helping young artists create work in his community and around town for years. “We are just programmers, and it's not about me or my work as much as the bigger picture, the artists and the people Birdseed can help," Garcia explains. "That's why I started Birdseed. All of these artists are so damn creative, it blows my mind. They do it with ease. I feel like I need to work harder because I got those awards. I need to prove myself even more."
The rest of the summer should be busy for Garcia. He just finished creating a piece for the new mini-golf course at Sculpture Park, and he's looking for street-art-minded kids to help paint an Urban Arts Fund mural called "Where Wood Meets Steel," a modern piece set for 48th Avenue and Washington Street that will feature Garcia's line work and fierce, formulaic patterns. He's also doing a private commission in Vail, as well as a second sculpture project in Jefferson Park as part of that neighborhood's urban renewal.

What's the next step for the nonprofit? Finding a space for a permanent home. In the meantime, you can find Garcia every Monday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Globeville Recreational Center at 45th Avenue and Grant Street, where the collective hands out food supplies.

Find out more about our 2015 MasterMind, Birdseed Collective, and how you can get involved with the urban art scene in your community here — where you can also suggest any spaces where Birdseed Collective could nest permanently.