Self Help Graphics isn't blameless over own fate

Well, who did? As '60s idealism faded, many Chicano artists didn't want to be called "Chicano" anymore, unless it meant a chance to exhibit at LACMA. Some art schools started teaching that print-making, a Self Help specialty, was passe, notes Benitez. And as a new generation of artists found more opportunities, Self Help lost its raison d'etre as the only place that would show their work.

But progress doesn't mean groups like Self Help are irrelevant, says artist Vincent Valdez, whose latest work is part of the Cheech Marin exhibition at LACMA. He got his start at San Antonio's Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center when he was 10 and had his first showing in L.A. at Self Help, where he recently contributed work for its annual print sale.

"Yes, things evolve and people move on," says Valdez, 30. "But the thing that shouldn't be overlooked is that not everybody gets to go to art school or show at galleries. . . . Nowadays, we're in the process of seeing the extinction of these community institutions, and I really do think it's a big loss."

The roots of Self Help's problems go back at least four years, when the agency was dealing with shrinking budgets and a crumbling building. Its darkest hour came on June 7, 2005, when the board, faced with risky conditions and unpaid insurance bills, suddenly decided to padlock the building. The surprise move shut out angry artists and even Benitez, who was blamed for many of the problems.

The chaos was costly. That very week, representatives of the Ford Foundation were scheduled to make a site visit as part of their review of a major grant application the agency had submitted. Leclerc says Self Help was a finalist for funding in Ford's Artography program, aimed at groups doing exemplary work in diverse communities. With the building closed, the meetings had to be moved and Self Help didn't get the grant.

"It was the perfect-storm syndrome," says Leclerc, who teaches architecture at Woodbury University. "Everything went wrong at that particular moment."

The nuns, based near San Francisco, learned about the closing of their building from a story in The Times, says Sister Carol Snyder, the provincial minister. That lack of communication signaled a growing strain in the relationship between the agency and the order.

Subsequent efforts to save Self Help didn't help inspire confidence among the nuns either.