WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A North Carolina artist is using his art to tell a story and give back to his community.

What You Need To Know

  • Yosimar Alvarez Gutierrez has created a community playbox at Kimberly Park Elementary School's Kimberly Park

  • The playbox contains toys and sports equipment

  • Alvarez Gutierrez is sharing his heritage in his art pieces and giving back to the community

Yosimar Alvarez Gutierrez, of Winston-Salem, has created what he calls a community playbox at Kimberly Park filled with toys and sports equipment, and he has plans to build more of them throughout the Triad in underserved communities.

The playbox is decorated in bright colors to represent his heritage in his art.

"It’s not necessarily about where you come from but how far you can take your skills, your talent, and what kind of stories you can tell," Alvarez Gutierrez said.

"I’m obviously Mexican, and I speak Spanish," he said, "so anytime I get to kind of put my culture, a piece of me, into a piece it makes it like 10 times better for me."

His love for art started early, inspired by his mother, who used hand stitching and textiles to create pieces popular in her native Mexico. But Alvarez Gutierrez focuses on drawing, painting and anything 3D he can build from the ground up.

"Ever since I was a child, I was introduced to that, and I was encouraged to keep doing it, so it kind of morphed into this thing where I was like, well, I really like this and I want to do this for the rest of my life," Alvarez Gutierrez said.

Alvarez Gutierrez works out of a maker space called Mixxer, where he had a fellowship focusing on community outreach, helping underserved neighborhoods with opportunities. He created a space for kids to take and bring toys and sports equipment.

"Why not give kids like me that grew up without a lot of toys and without a lot of money the chance to have everything they want?" he said."Why not give kids like me that grew up without a lot of toys and without a lot of money the chance to have everything they want?" he said.

He created what he calls a community playbox during the height of the pandemic and put it just three minutes away from Mixxer in the Boston-Thurmond neighborhood, where he grew up and still lives, calling it a full-circle moment for himself.

"That one place where you have parents and children to come here and get certain resources and just because it’s a safer place and it’s almost dead center the Boston-Thurmond neighborhood, so what better place than here?" Alvarez Gutierrez said.

The playbox sits in the middle of the neighborhood inside the playground of Kimberly Park Elementary School. He worked with students as they used art to personalize the box itself.

"Having them create drawings and just little doodles and stuff they are very fond of and including that in here, I think that's the best way to go about it safely and to even have it memorialized with the playbox itself," he said.

Alvarez Gutierrez plans create more community playboxes around the Triad.

If you would like to sponsor or donate, you can reach out to Mandez Douthit, Alvarez Gutierrez’s manager, at Thomandezd@gmail.com or 336-695-3485.