Earlier this year, IWR began an exciting new collaboration to create a public artwork in downtown Ithaca dedicated to refugees and immigrants in Tompkins County. The aim is to bring out the stories, thoughts and feelings of local community members who have experienced displacement, and the positive role they play in shaping our community.
Driving this project is the muralist Hugo Medina, and his vocation for public art with a conscience. Since childhood, Hugo has directed his artistic talent towards creative expression through murals. For him, the fact that this form can be accessible to all makes it especially powerful:
“I love creating public art, because you don’t have to go to a museum. You don’t have to make a special trip to go see it. You’ll just be walking down the street and – wow! There’s an image there that says so much, that brings people joy, sorrow, feelings, emotions.”
Hugo’s art is inspired by his own immigration story, which began when he moved to the US from Bolivia as a child. The challenges he and his family experienced, and the support he felt in pursuing his dreams growing up, have long motivated him to give back to the community through his work.
Having graduated from college, Hugo was living in Arizona when the state passed the controversial ‘show me your papers’ law in 2010 as part of Senate Bill 1070. This required law enforcement officials to check the immigration status of people they suspected of being undocumented and made it a misdemeanor crime to be caught without papers. Along with two friends, Hugo started a grassroots organization to create murals showing a more human perspective of Arizona’s immigrants in this context of codified hostility.
After he moved to Ithaca with his family, Hugo was heartened to discover IWR, whose mission he describes as ‘a natural match’ with his own ambition of supporting newcomers to the US to find community and connection.
The location chosen for the mural is the side of the Southern Tier Aids Program building opposite the Department of Social Services on West State Street in Ithaca. The wall faces a pedestrian public space set back from the road, where passersby of all walks of life, including newcomers, can enjoy it. A series of events over the summer have enabled community members with experience of displacement to input into the design of the artwork. Hugo’s aim is to forefront these voices in the conversation that the mural offers. Drawing on the many exchanges that have fed into the project, key themes represented will include new beginnings, hope and possibilities emerging against a local backdrop. In Hugo’s words:
“I believe the mural is going to be a lot about people coming together. It doesn’t matter who they are, their background, where they came from, what’s important is they’re making a connection.”
For Hugo, in today’s political context, creating a mural that talks about immigration and immigrants through themes of coming together and helping each other draws us away from the politics of immigration and the noise of tense debate around this subject. Instead, it brings us back to the value of human connection. Public art reaches everybody, he notes, and most importantly, it evokes ideas and starts a conversation that can lead to positive change.
A community paint day will take place in September, bringing together local residents of all backgrounds to contribute to the painting. For details of how to get involved, write to IWR Development Director Leila Wilmers at leilaw@ithacawelcomesrefugees.org.
This project was made possible in part with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, administered by the Community Arts Partnership, and in part by a grant from the Tompkins County Tourism Program.
