Latinx Arts Network, a local organization highlighting area Latin American artists, is hosting an artists showcase through film, literature, food, storytelling and visual arts to amplify the region’s rich Latin and Hispanic cultures.
The Latinx Arts Week begins Thursday with a visual arts exhibition called "A Land With No Name" at the Luminary featuring 13 local artists. Through May 4, viewers can experience Latin culture through a film festival, a culinary experience, a STEM celebration, an author’s showcase and an artists panel conversation. Festivalgoers can also take Spanish language tours at the St. Louis Art Museum and visit the Missouri Botanical Garden to learn about Latin and South American flowers.
The arts is part of the fabric of St. Louis, and the network wants Latin American artists from the region to also be a part of those conversations and to be celebrated, said Izzy Polanco, Latinx Arts Week director and Latinx Arts Network board member.
“Latin arts is a form of resistance, and given the political climate … it's more important than ever to not be fearful, to stand our ground and show people that we are here, especially in St Louis,” Polanco said. “We want to let people know that we are proud of one being here and that we are contributing positively, not just to the arts, but to the community.”
The Latinx Arts Network is a collective that supports Latin American and Hispanic artists and arts advocates. The group works with over 100 artists, including dancers, painters, sculptors, poets, actors, writers and photographers to help amplify their work in various ways locally, nationally and internationally.
Polanco says she hopes the network’s first arts week will inspire other Latin American artists nationwide to make St. Louis their home base.
“We want to make St Louis a hub for an arts movement, a safe haven for other artists to potentially consider St Louis in the future and just celebrate the Latin arts,” she said.
Visual artists like William Estrada, José Garza and Miriam Ruiz will present works from their collections during the exhibition at the Luminary. Polanco said many of the visual artists' work is reflective of their communities but also an act of resistance.
Ruiz is presenting a series of linocut relief prints called Lotería de la Revolución and another statement piece called La Bandera. She said her work is tightly intertwined with her political leanings and values. She hopes the artist's exhibitions bring relief to Latin American and Hispanic communities who feel they are under political attack right now.
“In the midst of political unrest and turmoil, I think that the arts can provide a space of relief and refuge, a place of belonging and a moment of respite from the storm,” Ruiz said. “What I do hope is that Latine people from St Louis and our non-Latine allies that this brings us together, so that we can organize and find ways to protect the most vulnerable people in our communities.”
