A year after opening in Trenton, Casa Cultura offers art, community and a sense of belonging

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Music, art and laughter spilled out of Casa Cultura in Trenton on Saturday, as the Latino arts and cultural center celebrated its first anniversary with food, painting and other activities.

The lively gathering reflected the kind of community and connection that co-founder and Director Samuel Kanig was seeking when he first moved to Trenton from Puerto Rico in 2006.

“Coming from Puerto Rico, you’re not searching for culture. It’s just there every day, right? It’s what’s in your lifestyle,” he said.

But he soon realized that there was a cultural gap for Puerto Ricans and other Latinos living in Trenton who faced challenges and stereotypes as they adjusted to life in the city.

When his first child was born in 2011, Kanig realized he wanted to ensure his son saw his cultural heritage reflected in his environment.

“I truly believe that once we strengthen our identity, once we know who we are, where we come from, is when we really start to empower ourselves,” he said. “And I think the arts and the music and cultural traditions are the way to get there.”

For Kanig and other co-founders of the grassroots initiative of Casa Cultura, art and music was an avenue to empower Latino communities. They started creating spaces for expression and art wherever they could — from living rooms and parks to neighborhood festivals.

The initiative became a nonprofit in 2025, and in November of that year, it opened its current brick-and-mortar home at 750 Cass St. in the city’s predominantly Latino south side neighborhood.

Casa Cultura is ‘opening the door’ to creativity, says founder

The center hosts events and activities focused on preserving culture, celebrating traditions and empowering the community, Kanig said.

Resident artist Jazmyn Jones, a Trenton-based painter and sculptor born in Puerto Rico, runs arts workshops for kids and adults in the space. Her classes, which use what she calls a “no-wrong-way approach,” encourage participants to use abstract art for self-expression.

Jones said that her students have built confidence from approaching creativity with that kind of freedom.

“Art is so intimidating to some,” she said. “They think you have to draw a ‘Mona Lisa’ or something perfect.”

Sometimes people who come to Casa Cultura don’t realize what they’ve been missing, Kanig said, but the center’s arts programming is “opening the door” to that self-discovery.

Exhibitions highlight local artists, and concerts in the space have brought international acts to perform in Trenton. It’s a kind of “incubator” for up-and-coming Trenton-based Latino artists, Kanig said.

Alba Hernández, co-founder and treasurer of Casa Cultura and Kanig’s wife, grew up in Trenton. She said the center serves as a kind of “third space,” neither home nor work, that provides a meeting place for a local network of Latina doulas and other grassroots community groups.

“I feel like this is kind of a hub that people can come and feel safe in,” she said.