As she looked at the black and white framed photos of Frida Kahlo and her friends and family members, Arianela Elfakih-Rua, 14, reflected on what she knows about the beloved Mexican artist.
"I've known Frida Kahlo, like, most of the time because of art. We talk a lot about Frida Kahlo and how she's made art and paintings, but it's more interesting actually coming and seeing her photos, and the pictures she's taken from a long time ago that we've never seen before," she said.
It was Arianela's second time visiting the show with her mom. The first time was a trip to the museum on a whim one weekend. This visit was to intentionally participate in the Latino Arts Festival, created by the Mi Museo Committee, a group of local Latino leaders hoping to attract a more diverse crowd to the museums.
"Even though we are Latinos and we're celebrating and it's called the Latino Arts Festival, we want everybody to come and join in and really be a part of the colorful people that we really are," said Lydia Martinez-Alvarez who co-chairs the Mi Museo Committee with Madeline Landrau. "And to really just make people aware of who we are and make them aware of who the artists were and are, because we're also trying to showcase local artists, not just artists that have passed away."
This is the second year for the festival. Last year the event was focused on local Latino artists exhibited in the Museum of Springfield History. This year the celebration centered around the "Frida Kahlo, Her Photos" exhibit located at the D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibit, which features Kahlo's personal photo collection, images she loved and some she took herself, closes this Sunday after being on display for four months.
Museums Director Kay Simpson said she was thrilled with the large turnout for the event which was free to the public. She said she hopes the festival served as a preview to upcoming events across the city in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month which runs from Sept. 15-Oct. 15 each year.
"We wanted to be able to complement it, but there's so many activities and events that are taking place. We didn't want to do anything to compete with that. So it was really a way to anticipate and get people really excited about what's to come," she said.
Simpson said the arts festival is just one of the many efforts to get more people visiting the museums, especially Springfield residents where the Latino population is nearly 50% according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Another effort was free summer Wednesdays which offered free admission to non-Springfield residents every Wednesday throughout the summer months.
"It was phenomenal. You know, one Wednesday we had 1,400 people. And then in August, we had 1,723 people participate. So definitely a lot of enthusiasm for the program and a lot of people who came because it was free. And so it really aligns perfectly with our goal of inclusivity and access for everyone," she said.
Landrau said while there are many Latinos in Springfield, there are also many who live in other communities.
"As Latinos, we are a welcoming community, right, and the goals for us as a committee is, how do you scale it? How about the surrounding cities? You've got Agawam, Chicopee, Holyoke. How do you extend it to those communities?" she said. " We are making sure that we're promoting it correctly in the right channels, but also the free component of it, to allow individuals to be part of this bigger society that we have to offer."
While they plan to continue the festival each year Martinez-Alvarez said the committee wants to do so much more.
"So it's not just the Latino Art fest, we just don't want to do it during Hispanic Heritage Month. We are more than just a month out of the year. We are year round, and so what we are working on is more than just one event. We're working on multiple events to make the museums affordable and accessible for everyone," she said.
For 14-year-old Arianela, seeing the art work of people who look like her and relate to her culture is impactful. She said she hopes the museums will do more events like the festival.
"I feel like the Latino community doesn't get appreciated enough, and they don't show a lot of the Latino community... so I enjoyed it very much," she said.
NEPM was a sponsor of the Latino Arts Festival. The newsroom operates independently.
