For 18 months, the immigrants’ rights advocacy group Corazón de Tucson worked on a project that involved providing immigrants and their families with arts therapy. Some really nice pieces resulted from that venture, and now organization is ready to showcase them in an upcoming exhibit.

Throughout the project, called Resolution Through Arts Engagement in the Era of SB1070, two local artists—Cristina Cardenas and Wesley Fawcett Creigh—collaborated with clinical therapist—Faviola Agustin—to develop a trauma therapy program, where migrants were given a space to vent about their experiences coming to the U.S. and the reasons for immigrating.

“The expressive arts not only inspire hope but also allow emotional pain and acute trauma to begin to heal and be released. The migrant families and members of Corazon allowed us access into their intimate journeys and personal lenses using artistic work. Each individual piece is unique and carefully created but collectively their commitment to resistance, healing, and hope supersedes any political or colonial structure,” says Faviola Agustin, who advised the lead artists in effective methods of arts therapy, in a press release. 

And so the exhibit Mis Historias/My Stories was born.

“For me the art classes made me feel like I had wings, it allowed me to travel. My experience in the workshops permitted me to feel emotions I do not feel in other activities; it freed me, gave me peace, it relaxed me and it taught me that even if I don’t have a lot of artistic ability I can still create,” says Francisca Lopez, one of the therapy workshop participants. 

The opening reception for Mis Historias/My Stories is happening on Saturday, Sept. 19 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Tiny Town Gallery, 174 E. Toole Ave.

This article appears in Aug 27 – Sep 2, 2015.

I was born and raised in Guatemala City, Guatemala. I moved to Tucson about 10 years ago. Since I was old enough to enjoy reading, I developed an interest in writing, and telling stories through different...

6 replies on “New Exhibit at Tiny Town Gallery Will Showcase Artwork Created by Immigrants”

  2. “to develop a trauma therapy program, where migrants were given a space to vent about their experiences coming to the U.S. and the reasons for immigrating.”

    No trauma therapy program for the working American citizens that are paying for these illegals and having their family members subject of their crimes?

    And why can’t the writer state they are illegals instead of masking it?

  3. Stienle family sues SF this morning for sanctuary city status that aided illegal in killing their daughter. We need personal lawsuits against Mayor and Council for continuation of this abuse of area residents.

  4. Hey “What, Again”, who says they are illegals? They are stated as immigrants. Not all immigrants are illegal. You are making an assumption. And you know what happens when you “assume”.

  5. Hey dreamjosie – you are absolutely correct. However, this writer deliberately does not accurately report their immigration status. She is knowingly distorting the truth. So should we just accept them, even if they are leeches because the writer won’t report the truth?

    Wouldn’t a better story be about legal immigrants coming to America?

    And Tucson Weekly is not alone in this journalistic fraud, so is the Daily Star who will not report the immigration status of criminals.

  6. I want America to be great again.

    Stay home and make your own countries great. Let them pay for your art therapy because you had to eat bologna twice a day in jail.

    A nation without borders is not a nation.

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