In conjunction with the exhibition Pinceladas en el Insomnio (Insomnolent Brushstrokes) by Rolando Rojas three UO faculty present on the history, culture and recent artistic & social developments in Oaxaca.
"Oaxaca, the Arts, and Education"
Stephanie Wood, Director of Wired Humanities Projects
This brief presentation will share examples of the ways in which schoolteachers, with underwriting from the US National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), are introduced to the arts in Oaxaca as a way of bolstering multicultural content in their U.S. classrooms. NEH summer institutes allow for close study of wood carvings, ceramics, textiles, paintings on fig-bark paper, and street art -- artistic media that can be both contemporary and rooted in a rich and complex cultural heritage.
“Isthmus Zapotec Culture and Aesthetics: Links to Contemporary Graphic Arts in Oaxaca”
Lynn Stephen, Professor of Anthropology
This presentation will describe important cultural and historical elements of Zapotec Isthmus culture and reflect on how these relate to trends in contemporary graphic art among youth in Oaxaca. We will analyze color, design, and important elements of several examples of contemporary stencil and graphic art from the youth collective ASARO in Oaxaca city.
“Indigenous' Lens: Media Development and Self-Representation in Oaxaca”
Gabriela Martinez, Associate Professor of Journalism and Communication
This presentation will focus on the development of indigenous media collectives, addressing issues of self-representation, cultural preservation through documentary video work, and the dissemination of indigenous views encased in media cultural products. We will analyze the work of Oaxaca's media collective Ojo de Agua.
