Through Her Workshops, Fort Worth Artist Natalia Margarita Inspires Personal Growth, Creativity, and Advocacy

In the visual arts world, some artists build careers by creating, while others dedicate themselves to teaching. Fort Worth artist Natalia Margarita’s journey has led her to bridge both worlds — using art as a tool for education, empowerment, and advocacy. From her early days as a ballet folklórico dancer to becoming an arts educator and community leader, she has continuously evolved her craft.

Her work extends beyond traditional teaching. She has pioneered student-led learning as a public school teacher, engaged in underground art movements, and developed her own workshop series called Creative Muse Arting, which is guided by her teaching philosophy that making art is a right we all share.

“I thought I would retire a little old lady and that they would drag my old body out of the art room,” she says with a laugh.

The Inspiration Behind Creative Muse Arting

After an early career in public school education, the pandemic shifted her focus, leading her to the Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (FWHCC) and a new passion for promoting economic equity in her community. Margarita refined her Creative Muse Arting concept in mid-2024 while completing a 10-week fast-track program for new business owners organized by FWHCC.

“I was trying to find myself,” she recalls. “I was so vulnerable. I started working on my doctorate at TCU but still had that little itch of wanting to teach and reach people. I also saw the need for making the arts accessible to adults so they could develop the soft skills they needed to run businesses. I could see my instructor [at the fast track program] struggling to know what I was doing there.”

During that time, Margarita invited six ladies to participate in a focus group where she refined her workshop concept that invites participants to explore drawing and painting in an open and nonjudgmental setting. Soon after, she entered the FWHCC’s annual business pitch competition and won first place and the People’s Choice award.

“Being an art teacher was not my calling like I thought it was,” she says. “My calling is bigger than that. Being an art teacher was a job within my calling.”

Inside Creative Muse Arting Workshops

Margarita’s workshops invite adults to reconnect with their creativity in a supportive, exploratory space. Rather than focusing on technical skill or photorealistic results, the sessions emphasize process over product by encouraging participants to engage with different mediums, tap into their senses, and embrace artistic expression.

Sessions begin with guided reflection followed by hands-on experimentation with drawing and painting stations. The atmosphere is relaxed. Over wine, snacks, and conversation, participants foster a sense of play and curiosity. By the end of each session, each participant creates something uniquely their own.

Margarita works to instill an appreciation of the arts in the men and women who sign up for her workshops.

“A lot of the people I work with are in middle management, and they serve on boards. I’ll tell them, ‘Look at how much effort and vulnerability it takes to make this piece. Let’s start putting [room] in our budgets to hire artists.’”

Margarita says she plans to incorporate the Creative Muse Arting concept into corporate training sessions and find ways to use her workshops to influence how Fort Worth and other cities allocate funding for the arts.

When you tap into your inner artist, she continues, you tap into your inner child.

At these workshops, Margarita says that she sees adults truly letting loose. “How [often] at your job are you allowed to be vulnerable and curious? The time goes by quickly, and they don’t want it to stop. That excites me. I’m building their sense of curiosity and dismantling what people think art should be.”