LUNA Art Collective | HOOPS

September - November 2019

Opening Reception: Thursday, September 12, 5 - 7 p.m. Artists will speak at 6 p.m.

Latinas Unidas en las Artes (LUNA) is a loose collection of diverse Latina artists with unique viewpoints from the Milwaukee metropolitan area that create art and offer each other support. Through exhibitions we activate spaces that amplify the broad voices within the collective.

HOOPS: We were born into them, a marker of our identities, a symbol of where we came from, and they became gifts celebrating our womxnhood. We adorn our ears with hoops so our identities are visible. We are proud of our boldness, power and resilience.

This HOOPS show is a collective representation of our various Latinx roots, our rituals and spirituality. From chunky to dainty, bodega purchased or passed onto us from our familias; see how we deconstruct stigmas and reclaim our HOOPS journeys.

THE UEC is delighted to be hosting the LUNA collective, and we asked several of the artists to share their thoughts about how HOOPS connects with the mission of the Urban Ecology Center of connecting people in cities to nature and each other. Their beautiful responses are below:

Everything is connected— just how trees are connected to soil, and how bees are connected to flowers, my hoops are connected to my culture. -Araceli Ramirez Contreras

To me, hoops are arcane. Like the sacred spaces we find in nature and form in our communities, hoop earrings are circles of protection and magic. -Gabriela Riveros

Hoops are a symbol of both strength and femininity. The act of adorning ourselves with ornamentation is a political act, connecting ourselves to our communities thus connecting ourselves to the world. -Yesenia Corona

"Pollinators and Prairies" by Escuela Verde's Field Research Team

December 2019 - February 2020

Opening Reception: Thursday, December 12, 4 - 6 p.m.

In Escuela Verde's Field Research Team, students explore the natural world around them through the practice of community science. Works in this show speak out about issues of conservation, preservation, climate change and environmental justice.