WHAT WE ARE DOING
Creating change by creating art
In April, we will produce our pilot workshop, a five day event in Portland, Maine led by internationally acclaimed artist Vicente Telles. The workshop will be hosted by the Indigo Arts Alliance in collaboration with the Maine College of Art and Design.
Vicente Telles
El Consumido, 2023
​
Become a Founding Donor. Help us reach our goal - $25,000 in 25 days -
in advance of our April 19-23 workshop
Your donation will launch Estoyart, a creative and healing way to bring migrant stories to a wider audience of the American public. The power of art can change lives - the lives of the immigrant and the lives of the audience they will reach through Estoyart.
​
​​​
​​​​​While art has long been used in therapeutic and clinical settings for at risk individuals, Estoyart aims to go further—producing powerful work that affirms dignity and amplifies immigrant voices. By bringing together a noted Latino artist with museum and gallery credentials and a group of immigrants, we merge individual artistic practices with the tradition of art as social commentary.
The result is work that fosters understanding, challenges prejudice, and shares immigrant stories with a broader audience.
​
Vicente Telles is a Santero (painter of saints) and cultural iconographer whose work honors the traditions of his native New Mexico while pushing the boundaries of traditional Catholic and cultural iconography. His practice includes social commentary retablos and an ongoing border culture series, using diverse materials such as textiles, fine papers, and repurposed objects.
​​​
In April, Vicente will join Estoyart following major international engagements, including an opening at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, a residency at the Sydney Biennale (Rememory), and preparations for the Border Biennial in El Paso and Juárez—bringing timely relevance and momentum to the workshop.​
​
Our partners, Indigo Arts Alliance and the Maine College of Art & Design, bring deep experience in artist mentorship, community engagement, and exhibition development ensuring a supportive environment and meaningful public outcomes for the work created.