Latine/Hispanic Heritage Month is from Sept. 5 through Oct. 15 this year. To commemorate this annual celebration, the University of Arkansas’ Multicultural Center and School of Art is hosting a juried art exhibition titled “Sanctuary/Santuario.” The gallery, on display on campus in the Faulkner Performing Arts Center through Oct. 18, features the art of Latine and Latinx artists based out of northwest Arkansas. Sophia Nourani spoke with one of the exhibit’s organizers, Sophia Ordaz, about the gallery and the concept that ties it all together. Ordaz, a cultural programming coordinator at the Multicultural Center, said the exhibit features work that attempts to showcase the artist’s concept of “sanctuary.”
Ordaz said she and her colleagues, Audrey Vega and Elsie Mejia, put out a public call for art in July with the deadline to submit work by the end of August. At that point, they began reviewing submissions. Ordaz said she wanted perspectives from all walks of life, beyond just university students.
One of those perspectives is from self-taught artist Lourdes Valverde. Born and raised in Mexico, Valverde moved to Bentonville in 2015. She has two pieces exhibited in the gallery, one of which features her son. For Valverde, sanctuary means a place of safety.
