A creative collaboration between Basalt High School and an established local gallery celebrates the stories of young “newcomers” — students who very recently immigrated to the United States.
They come from countries like Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Honduras. Many of them have been in the Roaring Fork Valley for less than a year. And now, their work is on display at The Art Base in downtown Basalt; after the exhibition, it will be distributed throughout the community.
The “Home/Un Hogar” program is designed to help the students adjust to a new place and express how that feels. So this fall, they were given three doors to decorate, and the students chose to paint each a different color to represent their emotions: Black, for fear. Green, for distance. And blue for loneliness. The program also gives students the chance to express themselves through writing. Visitors at the gallery can walk through the painted doors and read poems the students have composed.
One of the teens in the program, who goes by Lily, moved here from El Salvador just 11 months ago. (Aspen Public Radio is not including the students’ full names to protect their privacy.) While she’s only been part of this art program for a couple of days, she already looks at home in the gallery.
“Lo siento más fácil si yo agarro de que mis pinceles y comienzo a colorear, aunque sea mi cuaderno o dibujar algo,” Lily said. (Translation: “I find it easier to get something out by using art, if I grab by brushes and start coloring, even if it’s in my notebook, or drawing something.”)
Lily said she hopes the art she’s making with her class will help people understand what it feels like to begin a new chapter in a new place.
“Mi esperanza es que ellos al ver el arte puedan saber que el sentimiento que da o al menos ellos expresarse de esa forma, una forma donde puedan ser libre, y no mantener todo dentro de ellos,” she said.
(Translation: “My hope is that when they see the art, they know what that feels like, and what that feeling is, and also that they can find a way to express themselves and not keep everything in.”)
One of Lily’s classmates, Bryan, loves to write. He said words are like a release — a way of letting go.
“Personalmente, yo me puedo así expresar o ... desahogarme escribiendo, como, por ejemplo, alguna poesía o música. O algo que me esté pasando en el momento, me desahogo escribiéndolo,” Bryan said.
(Translation: “Personally, I can express myself and be able to let go or open up through poetry or through music. Or (if) something is happening to me in the moment, I let off steam by writing it.)
Bryan moved here three months ago, also from El Salvador.
In his poem, shared in both Spanish and English, he writes that the smell of wet earth reminds him of his childhood and that coffee reminds him of his mother.
“I closed these doors of fear and courage, and now I will open this door of mission,” he writes. “To do so I need to strive to fulfill my vision of my future.”
Like Lily, Bryan hopes people who come to the gallery will be inspired by the student’s work.
“Pueden llegar a hacer algo muy maravilloso, o algo muy importante — hecho por uno mismo, ¿no? Ya haciendo su trabajo de arte, metiéndose al arte de todo,” he said.
(Translation: “They can create something stunning, something important, and it would be something done by us that we get to share.”)
Bryan believes the artwork is something the students can share — with each other and with the community.
Leticia Guzman-Ingram is a teacher at Basalt High School who helps coordinate this program.
She said art can be a bridge to help people understand the students’ perspectives, and it can address the fear some members of the community may have of new arrivals in the Roaring Fork Valley.
“When they see the students and see how amazing they are, and where they come from, the beauty of their countries, I feel like that community grows stronger, too,” Guzman-Ingram said.
She added that the students grow stronger when they see the community celebrating their art. For last year’s HOME project, the students made little free libraries now spread all over Basalt. After this year’s exhibition, Guzman-Ingram hopes the student’s doors will be installed in prominent locations throughout the valley.
Guzman-Ingram also teaches classes like math and English as a second language, and she’s seen firsthand how a sense of value and worth can help students do better in school.
“I feel sometimes that our students feel like they're invisible. And then they come here, and they do this project, and then they see it later in the community — months or years later — and they say, ‘Hey, I was a part of that,’" she said. “And it makes them feel valued, and it makes them feel like their culture is valued by this community. And I think that's the most important thing.
The Home/Un Hogar exhibition is up through Dec. 28 at The Art Base.
Editor’s note: Primary, live interpretation for student interviews was provided in person by Claudia Pawl of Convey Language Solutions. Aspen Public Radio always prioritizes professional translation services because they provide valuable context and expertise that cannot be provided by software. In an effort to share this web post as soon as possible with our audience, the text translations of student quotes have been lightly edited for clarity with supplemental assistance from translation software.
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