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Rooted in Heritage: The Artistry of Noemi Hernandez-Balcazar

8 月 19, 2026

Creative West is proud to continue our storytelling series highlighting the transformative power of arts education. Through these spotlights, we share the stories of teaching artists, educators, and cultural leaders who are shaping their communities and advancing access to the arts. Join us as we celebrate their work, their journeys, and the impact they’re making.

Noemi is an award-winning visual artist, educator, and multi-lingual communicator who advocates for access to high-quality arts education for every child, no matter their background. A fixture in her community, she works with some of the most diverse populations in Utah. She is a former student of Mexico City’s INBA dance program and holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, composite sculptures, and foreign language from Southern Utah University.

Today, she serves as the Granite School District Arts Coordinator in Salt Lake City, where she nurtures teachers, champions Utah’s teaching artists, and organizes thousands of learning opportunities for students each year. Her honors include the 2025 West Valley City Essential Piece Award, the 2023 Beverly Taylor Sorensen Administrative Award, and the 2017 Governor’s Leadership in the Arts Award for Education.

What are your creative/cultural/art practices?

As a 3-D folk artist, Noemi shares her insights and experiences through the arts with school-age children, formal educators, and fellow artists. Her work draws from a deep well of personal and cultural memory. “Many of my projects draw inspiration from each individual’s identity — cultural or ethnic — also from family traditions and country of origin,” she explains.

Noemi helps learners connect with the materials and traditions of her homeland, and she takes great care to guide educators in facilitating respectful, meaningful learning about cultural traditions. Her first-hand knowledge helps connect communities across cultural celebrations, such as her well-known sugar skull workshops during Día de los Muertos.

In these hands-on sessions, learners explore how sugar skulls connect to larger cultural concepts, how monarch butterfly migrations reflect our shared connectedness, and how artmaking can open the door to STEM integration. For Noemi, the smells, colors, and symbols of these festival traditions form a direct line from craft to heritage — a reminder that art tells a story.

That belief traces back to the people who shaped her. “I spent a lot of time with my grandmothers and learning from them — their fabulous stories helped me learn how to do art, how to sew,” she says. “Never underestimate what you can learn from elderly people.”

Why do you teach?

For Noemi, teaching is inseparable from her conviction that opportunity changes lives. “I have learned the importance of education in this country because it gives you the options to grow,” she reflects. As a mother and an immigrant to the United States, she recognizes how access to educational opportunities can improve a person’s circumstances and quality of life. She believes everyone deserves the chance to grow, and that exposure to high-quality artistic experiences is a human right.

“One of my missions in life and at work is to help every student, regardless of where they come from, have access to great opportunities and resources that help them have a great life,” she says. “This world wouldn’t be what it is if we didn’t have great architects, artists, musicians, or dancers. The arts are more important than people think.”

How did you get here?

Noemi grew up in Mexico City, where she developed a lifelong love for art and learning, thanks in part to her grandparents, who encouraged her to learn by doing. “One of the most important things from my traditions is how we remember people who are no longer with us,” she recalls. “One of the things I remember most was dancing with my grandfather. He’s the one who taught me to love dancing.”

She didn’t fully realize how important these connections were until she immigrated to the United States and found herself missing the traditions and celebrations of Mexico — the scents, the foods, and the gatherings that honored and connected her to her ancestors. For Noemi, memories and materials combine through craft to create meaning and connection. Over time, she slowly built a practice to share her approach and techniques with other educators and communities.

That path eventually carried her far beyond a single classroom. During her years teaching at Kearns High School, the popularity and quality of her courses took her across Utah to teach in rural classrooms and to lead professional development at conferences statewide. Now, as the Granite School District Arts Coordinator, she provides standards-based professional development for classroom teachers and remains a long-time champion for Utah’s teaching artists.

How do you see your work connecting to themes of democracy, wellbeing, and belonging?

Working within so many different communities has affirmed Noemi’s belief that when we come together to learn, we make positive contributions to culture. “All of us define what American culture is by contributing in a positive way,” she says. “If you have a healthy passion — the arts, athletics, any club — you will develop skills that help you become a better American, regardless of where your parents are born. Those skills and experiences will contribute to this country and help you become a stronger community member.”

Noemi sees teaching artists as an essential part of that equation, because their practice gives back to communities. Teaching artists help learners who feel lost, guide them toward their passions, and support them in building skills that strengthen the world around them in mutually beneficial ways. “If you feel completely lost and you don’t know what you love, teachers are the helpers who can support you,” she offers. “America is a great country, but it can become even better, thanks to you.”

Learn more about Noemi Hernandez-Balcazar

Utah Teaching Artist Directory: https://artsandmuseums.utah.gov/teaching-artist-directory/listing/noemi-hernandez/

Submitted by: Reilly Jensen, Arts Education Program Manager, Utah Division of Arts & Museums

About Reilly
Reilly is an arts educator with a special focus on community impact and international heritage collaboration projects. Her research draws on social practice to examine the construction of knowledge, meaning, and memory, along with the potential of cross-disciplinary learning. Reilly teaches community education, scientific illustration, and visual arts both in the field and in classrooms across Utah. She holds an MFA from the Community-Based Arts Education Program at the University of Utah, an MA in Middle Eastern studies, and a BS in anthropology.