Ali Lowe Riley Award
Initiated in 2021, the Ali Lowe Riley Award provides opportunities for students who are committed to cultivating their creative spirit. This merit-based award recognizes and supports the artistic development of young people by providing courses, art supplies, portfolio reviews, and mentoring through Brentwood Art Center. This special award is granted to exemplary students working with and nominated by BAC’s community partner, artworxLA.
Generously supported by the Lowe Riley family, “in honor of our daughter, Ali, whose creative spirit continues to amaze us. As a family, we wish to provide opportunities for others to cultivate their creative spirit.”
2022 Awardee: Jada Sparks
Jada Sparks began working with ArtworxLA in March of 2022 and took Concept Art and Pathways, where she learned how to build up her art portfolio.
At Brentwood Art Center, Jada enrolled in Creating Comics & Graphic Novels with comic book artist and BAC instructor Robert Roach. Jada then began her mentorship with BAC teaching artist Mayuka Thias. Jada has interests in drawing and illustration, fashion design, comics and graphic novels, and expressed her desire to learn how to be more expressive with her drawings and how to better use pen and ink. Her goals were to improve her drawing skills. She hopes to explore different mediums in the future like painting.
Another new found interest Jada has found is sewing, and she hopes to use this year as an opportunity to spend some time reading and learning more about sewing. One of the important lessons Jada learned at BAC is “don’t be afraid to put your work out there, even if it's not very good at first”. Jada hopes to attend college in the future and wants to study illustration or animation.
Inaugural Awardee: Presiliano De La Torre
Presiliano “Pres” De La Torre graduated from Rose City High School in 2019. While at Rose City, Pres was introduced to artworxLA, and participated in artworxLA workshops in zine-making and printmaking. He went on to join artworxLA's Advanced Programs in the afternoons and took more workshops in visual arts, music production, and leadership development. During this time, he applied for and received a scholarship to Art Center College of Design's ACX Teens program in the summer of 2019, taking Head Drawing, and again in the summers of 2020 and 2021 for Comic Book Illustration. On his own time, Pres explores stop motion animation, video editing, and making short films. He makes his own drawings and is currently trying out 3D modeling and animation in a program called Blender. Pres is currently enrolled at Pasadena Community College.