Margaret Horning and Cody Umans organized six free art workshops and an exhibition within the month of July 2023 at a shelter called Nuestra Señora de Lourdes. The patients, and their family members, who stay at the shelter come from different parts of Mexico to seek cancer treatment at the nearby medical centers in Tlalpan. Twice each week, during their residency at El Sur, Margaret and Cody organized free art workshops at the shelter.
The residents were invited to create anything they wanted, but if they needed inspiration Margaret and Cody offered a prompt to paint on cardboard cut outs of butterfly wings. The wings could be painted like the pattern of the Monarch butterfly on one side, and on the other side, memories from their home. The relationship between the Monarch butterfly’s migration and the travels of the residents at the Albergue offered an easily accessible way to find catharsis through art. In the end roughly thirty butterflies were made as well as thirty paitnings on paper, all of which were exhibited at the final exhibition at Nuestra Señora de Lourdes.
The organizers documented the workshops and compiled information into a zine which they gave copies to both the art residency, El Sur, and to the shelter, Nuestra Señora de Lourdes. The goal of the organizers was to build a sustainable relationship between the two organizations so that more artists that participate at the El Sur residency can continue to organize art workshops at the shelter in the future. The zine includes specific instructions for both Nuestra Señora de Lourdes. and El Sur to organize more art workshops, as well as the artist’s manifesto on “How to Make a Free Art Workshop”. Below is documentation of the art workshops, the exhibition, and the zine.
