Blue Sky Sustainable Living Center

Tourism events and hospitality - explore cuyamain 2019 explore cuyama hospitality initiative hosted 1,071 visitors to the cuyama valley. The fees we collect and money they spend in the valley help to invigorate the local economy, employ local residents, and support our non-profit programming. Our industrial space continues to be used to host local creative small businesses that hire locally and receive one-on-one technical assistance to maintain or expand their business.

Creative community engagementwe hosted two interdisciplinary academic partnerships with higher education institutions - dominican university and Iowa state university. Our desert fellowship artist-in-residence program hosted three creative professionals in 2019. Over the course of three weeks, desert fellows live and work onsite to develop an independent creative project that thoughtfully engages local residents. This work is stie-responsive, with an on-site proposal process guided by our staff and informed by the fellows experiences listening and learning from cuyama valley communities. Additionally, we hosted a six-month artist fellowship and eventual art exhibit with photographer noe montes. Working in the cuyama school district, teaching students about the field and photographic practice, he encouraged our youth to create and strengthen the community through art.

Tourism & hospitality - made in cuyamathe made in cuyama project focuses on identifying local entrepreneurs and businesses and helping them reach their full potential within our rural communities in the cuyama valley. We actively support the development of social ventures that lead to hiring locally, provide job training, and advance social and environmental community initiatives as partners and collaborators. Our team assists with business planning, marketing, connection to financing, commercial space, and manages a shared-use kitchen: the cuyama kitche/la cocina cuyama.