Local Sculptor Nora Valdez invites the community to participate in art making.
Nora Valdez is a sculptor who is highly engaged in Boston’s community. She works with ideas about the home, drifting from place to place, and immigration. This summer, she is an artist in residence at The Eliot School in Jamaica Plain. Together, Valdez and a core of teen makers are designing an installation that the public will have an active part in contributing to.
This project is a part of the broader Home/Hogar work that Nora has been creating. You may be familiar with her carved sculptures at Boston Sculptors Gallery, where she has monumentalized figures of caregivers and the traditional home. For this project with The Eliot School, Valdez is taking a step back from her traditional modes of making and finding ways for everyone in the community to have a voice in this project.
Anyone who wishes to express creativity about these concepts can join Nora at various libraries around Jamaica Plain. Using old manila luggage tags, people are invited to express their feelings about home and place. Write poetry, draw pictures, or just come to talk and learn. Makers from Eliot School and Nora will be there to guide your process.
At the end of the month, join in on a culmination event and reception where the entire project will be unveiled outdoors by the Eliot School Annex. The core maker group and Valdez have designed movable walls that will structurally resemble homes.The luggage tags will be arranged on these home-like installations made by Nora and a core group of maker-volunteers.
Dates for the Workshops are:
Friday August 10th 10:30-Noon
Connolly Branch of the Boston Public Library
433 Centre Street
Boston, MA 02130
Friday August 10th 1:00-2:30
Egleston Square Branch of the Boston Public Library
2044 Columbus Avenue
Boston, MA 02119
Monday August 13th 2:00 – 4:00
Jamaica Plain Branch BPL Library
30 South Street
Boston, MA 02130
See the full installation on Saturday August 25th from 2:00-4:00 at the Eliot School Annex (253 Amory Street Boston, MA 02130)
If August is busy for you, in November, you will be able to catch this work at Galatea Gallery along size Nora’s stand-alone sculptures.
