Promotional Art for 2024 Cycle the Arts Highlights Southwest, Indigenous Imagery

Cycle the Arts is one of our favorite annual events, coming up this year on Sunday, April 21 (save the date!). And one of our favorite Cycle the Arts traditions is the commissioning of new promotional artwork each year.

The art for this year’s event was created by Phoenix artist Yazmin Yarely Acosta Sagastume, who has worked with Scottsdale Arts in a variety of positions, including as a preparator for Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) and Canal Convergence. She also spent three semesters as an intern for Scottsdale Public Art while studying at Arizona State University (ASU). 

The artwork Sagastume created depicts a girl riding a bike, surrounded by wildflowers and dragonflies. In the background is “One-Eyed Jack,” an Old Town artwork by John Randall Nelson that is part of the Scottdale Public Art Permanent Collection. Sagastume also added some personal touches. 

“I wanted to add a little bit more of my background,” Sagastume says. “She has this really long braid. Braids are important in my culture.”

Sagastume says her background comprises a mix of cultures, including indigeneity and Spanish traditions. Her mother is Mexican, and her father is Guatemalan. Within these various traditions, braids have persevered through colonization.

The artist was excited to be chosen for the Cycle the Arts commission, in part because she remembers watching last year’s artist, Angela Masker, create the 2023 artwork. Sagastume was interning for Scottsdale Public Art at the time, while Masker, a former SMoCA intern, was working full-time in human resources for Scottsdale Arts. 

“When they asked me, I was like ‘Oh my god, this is so sweet!’” Sagastume says. “It just felt like a full circle.” 

To create the artwork, she began with an initial sketch and then brought it into Adobe Illustrator to smooth it out and give it more of a graphic design feel. The artwork will be used on T-shirts and stickers, as well as online promotions for the event.

Like many artists, Sagastume started creating at a young age. In high school she began to take it more seriously. Then, at ASU, she majored in anthropology and minored in studio art with a focus on painting—mostly figurative work and portraiture in oils. She graduated in May 2023. 

Sagastume began exploring graphic design about three years ago, though this project is more elaborate than the logos and flyers she has worked on previously. 

In addition to contract prep work, Sagastume also works at Phoenix College as a STEAM outreach coordinator and at Palabras Bilingual Bookstore in downtown Phoenix, where she helps coordinate a small art gallery and lead workshops. 

“I really want to work on providing more workshops for people in the community,” she says. “I’ve wanted to do that for a while.”

Cycle the Arts is free, but registration is required. Learn more here. 

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