GoggleWorks Center for the Arts (GoggleWorks) announced a major project called Put On: Imagination, Migration, and Identity, a story-sharing and visual arts project which will immerse visitors, students, and participants in the work of Maria De Los Angeles. The renowned Mexican-born, New York City-based artist, focuses on issues of migration, displacement, identity and otherness through work in drawing, painting, installation, performance, fashion, and sculpture.
“My personal history plays a decisive role in my work,” said Los Angeles’ artist statement. “As an undocumented immigrant, I learned to navigate a new culture and a new language.” As one of nearly 650,000 so-called Dreamers who immigrated to America as a child, she learned to navigate a new culture and language through a variety of artistic methods.
The project will be anchored by the project’s namesake exhibition of de Los Angeles’ on view in the Irvin & Lois E. Cohen Gallery East at GoggleWorks Center for the Arts in downtown Reading, Pennsylvania from August 6th to October 14th, 2022. The exhibition will be open to the public admission-free each day from 9am-9pm. In addition to the anchor exhibition, GoggleWorks will host de Los Angeles in downtown Reading to lead multiple workshop, public art, and placemaking programs through the summer and fall.
“The most exciting thing is to be able to work with youth, and be able to incorporate mixed media and embroidery into the garments, which I view as textile projections of identity,” said. De Los Angeles, “As an artist it can be difficult to look beyond my own experience, and as much as I view myself as entrenched in these communities and the immigrant experience, I am aware of the limitations of my understanding. The storytelling environment fostered in the workshops invites the conversation and collaboration that I believe is very transformative.”
“Maria de Los Angeles is an exceptional artist,” said Levi Landis, GoggleWorks executive director. “Her unique, multi-disciplinary work and visual approach to storytelling will promote dialogue and connection between and among residents, visitors, and artists about migrant experiences, cultural identity, and the role of imagination in shaping our community.”
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced earlier this week that it would award a $10,000 grant to support the project.
“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts projects like this one from GoggleWorks that help support the community’s creative economy,” said NEA Acting Chair Ann Eilers. “GoggleWorks in Reading is among the arts organizations nationwide that are using the arts as a source of strength, a path to well-being, and providing access and opportunity for people to connect and find joy through the arts.”
For more information on other projects included in the Arts Endowment grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news or view a state-by-state listing of the grants announced.
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