Órale Community Art Project

ABOUT

The Órale Community Art Project celebrates the rich traditions, stories, and practices passed down from one immigrant generation to another. This project highlights the vital contributions of immigrant communities of color, exploring both their collective impact and individual identities.The project showcases the artwork created during the series of community art workshops, photo portrait sessions, and interviews with participants. This collaborative public art project extends beyond traditional artistic media, incorporating our community into the creative process. The grant funds were utilized to provide tangible impacts through art workshops, job opportunities, and artistic mentorship.

Artists, photographers, videographers and community members were engaged to help convey our community's story, bringing their expertise to enhance the project's impact. Additionally, volunteers played a significant role, contributing their time and effort to ensure the project's success.

The community collaboration is a direct action towards creating a space where our stories and identities are honored. We invite you to experience the depth and diversity of our immigrant community through this project, as we continue to unfold and reconnect with our histories toward a brighter future.

This year-long collaboration between Órale and artist José M. Loza was funded through the Creative Corps Grant Program, a state pilot initiative.

Project Made possible by The California Arts Council Creative Corps Grant and The Arts Council for Long Beach

Project Planning

The intention with the project was to highlight the immigrant community of Long Beach. It was an opportunity to take an approach that centered community members but also included them into the process of the project.

It began working with an organization that exemplified Social Justice work in the community (Órale). Collaborating with them was the first step to putting these thoughts and goals into action.

With this grant we were able to activate, mobilize and showed what a multidimensional action/portrait of a community looks like through the lens of ourselves and community members. It was developed in a way to highlight different portions of the immigrant community from the participants served to those facilitating the work as well which is resonant of hidden economies and workforces and people who are unseen.

Workshops

We organized a series of four workshops focused on the themes of identity, memory, culture, and community, all with a strong emphasis on social justice and community engagement. Each workshop explored a different art-making process, including relief printmaking, cyanotype, and stenciled posters. These workshops were facilitated by teaching artists, community members, and volunteers.

Photo Day

The community Photo Day was an opportunity to highlight individual participants and their families who took part in our project. Participants were invited to dress their best and have their portraits taken, both individually and with their families, by local visual artist and photographer DJJ MEDIA. This event celebrated the community and fostered a sense of pride and belonging among participants.

Oral History Project

The Oral History interviews are a vital part of this project, serving to link our shared history as a community and preserving the voices of those who live beside us. Our hope is to normalize the practice of sharing stories with one another across generations, as it is crucial for preserving our historical memory. An exciting prospect is the collection of oral histories, which may lead to an audio or video archive from our local immigrant community.