Art exhibit to explore connections to ‘Our Grandmothers’

Date: 2/22/2021

WESTERN MASS. – In the story of people’s lives, grandmothers frequently play a foundational role. The celebration of those individuals who often help shape us, is the focus of “Our Grandmothers,” an upcoming exhibit that examines women and their stories from around the Pioneer Valley.

“This is something really important to me,” said the exhibit curator, Waleska Santiago-Centeno. “That we acknowledge these women and recuperate the memories, because sometimes the memories are being forgot, you know, that this woman worked four jobs or she lived in all these cities.” She said the project is about respect and history. “If you know the past, then you know the present and you know where you’re going in the future.”

The exhibit is a collaboration between Santiago-Centeno; Natalia Munoz, the project coordinator Holyoke Media, a non profit multimedia and civic engagement organization, and Julie Lichenberg, co-director of The Performance Project, a Springfield-based intergenerational and intercultural arts community.

This will be the fourth exhibit focusing on grandmothers that Munoz and Santiago-Centeno have worked on. The idea for the project was born when  Munoz and a friend and colleague, Naomi E. Valentine, were looking at photos of family. The two reached out to Santiago-Centeno with the idea to create an art installation based on grandmothers.

The three included their own grandmother’s in the first exhibit, which was staged at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2008. The concept was looking at grandmothers through the eyes of their granddaughters. A second exhibit, shown in Westfield a couple of years later, expanded the scope to include the perspective of grandsons, as well. In 2016, at Wistariahurst in Holyoke, a third version of the exhibit was displayed.

This time, Santiago-Centeno said, the multicultural aspect is important. “It’s an important cultural space to respect these women and their impact on us,” she said. The first three exhibits were presented in English and Spanish. While this exhibit will be in English, she said that they will translate and take into account when a person’s native language is an important aspect of the story.

People wanting to participate must fill out a questionnaire and submit a photo of their grandmother. After filling out the questionnaire, Santiago-Centeno will reach out for further information. Some of the questions asked are about the grandmother, but others are about the person’s relationship with her – how often they saw her at different ages and their earliest memories of her. There is also a place at the end of the questionnaire for people to talk about their grandmother. Santiago-Centeno said that participants can write an essay, a letter, or a poem to describe their grandmothers and what they have meant in their grandchild’s life.

“You can connect their legacy to people today,” Santiago-Centeno said, adding that the stories that people submit contain universal themes with which the audience can connect. She shared that she keeps a box of tissues nearby when she reads about the women, because their stories make her cry, laugh, mourn and celebrate. And each one is different, she said. She has read stories of a grandmother who lost her sense of taste in an accident, a grandchild who remembering their grandmother after she is gone and another  who wrote 100 thank-yous to their 100-year-old grandmother.

Santiago-Centeno expects to have more than 50 stories submitted and will need to decide which grandmothers to include in the exhibit. The ones that are not in the physical installation will be displayed online.

“Our Grandmothers” is funded by a grant from the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts. Rather than showing the exhibit at a museum, Santiago-Centeno said it will be displayed at locations within the community, including community colleges, city halls and lobbies. The spaces may not be able to host the entire exhibit, she said, and it may be broken up into portions, depending on the space. Santiago-Centeno expects “Our Grandmothers” to be open for viewing in September.

For more information on “Our Grandmothers” or to learn more about the programs that are collaborating on this project, visit https://performanceproject.org or https://holyokemedia.org.