The Steven Muñoz Art Fund

ABout the art fund

In honor and memory of local artist and longstanding member of the City Blossoms Board of Directors, Steven Muñoz, City Blossoms created the Steven Muñoz Art Fund in recognition of our tremendous local DMV artists. Highlighting the power of art to transform and inspire, this fund supports our ability to compensate the local artists who contribute their vision and talents to our kid-driven green spaces throughout DC.

“I believe in the integrity of art as a means for sharing thoughts and ideas. Art can engage, open, and change minds through images, senses, and perceptions. Through art, that which is small, misunderstood, or ignored, can be given a voice that has the potential to influence and inspire others to action.” - Steven Muñoz, in his feature by The Future Is Queer

2024 Projects

FEEL TO HEAL by Elena Salinas

What hopes or visions do you have for public art and green space in the future in DC?

More of both! I’ve been thinking about how schools should be cornerstones of community - right now so many schools in DC are turf, concrete, and a gray wall. And both art and green spaces are so critical for the development of happy and healthy humans.

I would love to see more funding for artists and community gardens from the city. Gardens should be accessible and easy to find. Once people start reconnecting with nature, including their human community, it has a great ripple effect on society. And you begin to notice the pieces of nature that resist and surround us, even in the cracks of the sidewalk.

Artists

Elena Salinas

Elena Salinas O’Toole is an artist and aspiring educator from Washington D.C. She currently works as a 3rd grade assistant teacher at Oyster Adams Bilingual School, where she went from K - 8th grade. Elena has always felt a deep love for nature, especially the Ocean, Bees, Fungi, Ferns, and Ginkgo Trees. She believes art is an important catalyst for change, and also a very helpful digestif. Her favorite animal to see in Rock Creek is the Great Blue Heron.

Steven Muñoz (1974 - 2023)

Originally from New Mexico, Steven attended American University in Washington, DC where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a concentration in printmaking. His work is in the permanent collections of: Western Railroad and Mining Museum in Helper, Utah; Arlington County Government, Virginia; the Montgomery County Public Art Trust, Maryland, and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Art Bank. Steven enjoyed spending time as: a board member and Chairperson of City Blossoms Board of Directors (2013-2021), a certified DC Master Gardener, a dog owner, and a coffee drinker.