On #InternationalMigrantsDay we celebrated with our Final Exhibition ‘Nuestras Historias’.
Latin Hub recorded stories narrated by Latin traders in London and provided the audio files to Latin artists who recreated the main ideas in their paintings. Latin Hub also contextualised these individual stories, explaining the obstacles that the Latin community faces as well as signposting to organisations where Latin Americans can seek support to overcome some of these challenges.
The event took place in La Placita, a Latin market that offers food, drinks, services and typical products from Latin America. It is not a touristic venue and almost all visitors are from the Latin American community in the UK. Many traders have experienced hardship during covid and, sadly, some had to stop trading. The exhibition was located in one of the empty shops of the market, a former hairdresser salon.
The 3-day event took place in late December, during a climate of uncertainty over the new surge of covid cases in London. Although we decided to go ahead, we restructured the event, allowing only one or two people per screening. We also restricted the number of visitors during the gallery slot and kids workshop sessions.
Our visitor restrictions allowed for a more intimate experience speaking directly with each participant. Some seemed confused or intrigued by ‘this kind of art’ in the market. Over 200 people participated in the event and 46 completed an online survey after viewing the video exhibition.The overall (1-5) rating for the exhibition was 4.5* and some of the feedback is reflected in the word cloud below, which includes popular words like beautiful, colourful, amazing, strength, love, amazing etc.
We also invited kids to participate by asking them the draw something about the market that they liked. Their drawings will remain in the shop until new occupants arrive.
We are grateful to Heritage Fund UK for giving us this incredible opportunity to support the traders of the markets and strengthen the Latin American cultural heritage in this difficult times.
