FREE COMMUNITY WRITING WORKSHOP
WITH NINA MCCONIGLEY
(IN CONJUNCTION WITH OUR EXHIBIT)
Friday the 27th at 4:30 PM
Center for Creativity
200 Mathews St. Fort Collins
“Hyphens & Hemispheres: The Places We Come From” currently exhibited at the Center for Creativity, is a collection of collaborative portraits, including poetry by participants and photography by Brigid McAuliffe. It features people from 38 different countries, living in Fort Collins, highlighting the diverse fabric of Northern Colorado, including new arrivals & long-time community members.
In conjunction with the exhibit, award-winning author Nina McConigley, who is a creative writing professor at Colorado State University, and who is herself part of the exhibit, will offer a free creative writing workshop for all ages in the gallery space Friday at 4:30. The workshop is entitled "Fort Collins: The Places You Are From! and will ask participants to write their own "I am From Poem" and other writing prompts about the origins and spaces they come from.
About Nina:
Nina McConigley was born in Singapore and raised in Wyoming. Her short-story collection Cowboys and East Indians was the winner of the PEN Open Book Award and a High Plains Book Award. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Orion, High Country News, O, Oprah Magazine, Parents, Virginia Quarterly Review, American Short Fiction, and The Asian American Literary Review among others. In 2019-2020, she was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and a 2022 recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Creative Writing Fellowship. She teaches at Colorado State University. She has both a novel and essay collection forthcoming in 2026.
Two new projects, "Hyphens & Hemispheres: The Places We Come From" and "Querida Familia" will be exhibited in September
at the new Carnegie Center for Creativity in Fort Collins.
Exhibition and Reception Details - Free and Open to the Public
Location: Carnegie Center for Creativity, 200 Mathews St, Fort Collins, CO 80524
Reception: September 14, 12-2 p.m.
Exhibit Dates: September 11-15, September 18-22, September 25-29, 2024
Gallery hours: 12:00 to 6:00 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday.
“Hyphens & Hemispheres: The Places We Come From” is a collection of portraits and poetry of 38 people from 38
countries. This exhibition highlights the diverse fabric of Fort Collins, featuring both new
arrivals and long-time community members. Each portrait is paired with poetry written by
the subject, reflecting their origins and the moments that have shaped their lives.
“Communities hold a multitude of experiences, and the way individuals relate to their
communities will differ depending on their identity,” said Carolina Penafiel Bucheli, a participant from
Ecuador. “This project is important to me because I believe that self-expression and
collaboration strengthen the ties between people. I hope this project brings more empathy,
awareness, admiration, and understanding of others.”
“The goal of this project is to celebrate the diversity present in Fort Collins that is often not
realized on the surface,” said Brigid McAuliffe, director of Picture Me Here. "In reality, our
city is enriched by an incredible variety of backgrounds. This exhibit brings together people
from across the globe who contribute to the vibrancy of our community."
“Querida Familia” is an intergenerational project involving five families from Mexico who
now call Fort Collins home. Each family selected a series of significant photographs and
wrote letters to their loved ones about these meaningful moments. These photographs and
letters will be displayed together. The participating families are leaders within the Interfaith
Solidarity & Accompaniment Coalition (ISAAC), an immigrant advocacy organization in Fort
Collins. This project is a collaboration between ISAAC and Picture Me Here.
“I’m very excited for the community of Fort Collins to see this exhibit,” said Jesus Castro,
an ISAAC leader and program participant. “These projects give visibility and representation
to the immigrant community living here. It’s been an honor to be part of these projects.”
CULTURE DISH
In 20220-2022, Picture Me Here received generous grants from Arts in Society and the Addy Foundation to support a special project called Culture Dish, working with refugee mothers and their children, and farmers in the North Fork Valley. We are partnering with Thistle Whistle Farm to host workshops on the farm, and we will also work with the women in their homes and virtually. We will help the women produce and share stories about their favorite meals, and the cultural identity and memories around these meals. Farmers at Thistle Whistle will help them find and plant ingredients from these meals and other foods they miss from their home countries. Their children will collaborate with them on planting food and producing the stories, while simultaneously learning about their mother's past and their own cultural heritage.
NEW AMERICAN VOICES
New American Voices, our fellow's animation, was selected for an exhibit in NYC on Fourth of July entitled We The People. The exhibit featured unique perspectives on what it means to be an American. The videos and animations were projected on the Manhattan Bridge surrounded by fireworks, trains, and people celebrating. Thank you to John Ensor Parker, Light Year, and the additional team that made this powerful event possible.
NEWS ARCHIVE:
Images by Goshen Carmel (2018 Fellow and Mentor)
Our Fall exhibit at Rocky Mountain College of Arts and Design was a great success. Throughout September and October, we presented the amazing postcards from our Dear Younger Me project, and also a selection of videos, audio stories and animations produced throughout the fellowship program. This followed our Summer exhibit at Colorado Photographic Arts Center, where fellows gave moving talks in front of a packed gallery about their work and their experience in the fellowship. It was a busy Summer and exciting to share our fellow's powerful work with so many people!
Picture Me Here is a 2017-2018 Arts in Society Grantee! With this generous support, we're offering a year long, advanced fellowship for a select group of PMH participants to hone their creative media and storytelling skills, and gain first hand experience in the field with our teaching artists (professional videographers, photographers and designers). Fellows are producing creative writing, audio stories, video and photography works, and animations. Fellows are also awarded a free DOM annual membership, granting them access to equipment and software throughout the year. We will feature fellows work in a 2018 Summer exhibit at Colorado Photographic Arts Center and in the Fall at Rocky Mountain College of Arts and Design.
Arts in Society grant:
Mayors Award:
We're honored to receive a 2016 Mayor's Award for our work fostering integration!
A huge thanks to City of Denver's Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs for nominating us!
Our work featured on National Public Radio:
Danielle Preiss of NPR wrote a great story about our project and participants in Nepal and how they are using photography to remember and to heal a year after the earthquake. "The photos taken by the youth of Langtang collection does show some images of destruction, but they also show the resilience of survivors as they honor the past and push on with their lives." Thank you Danielle and NPR!
PBS grant:
Watch "Powered By Story" a PBS documentary our work is featured in:
We're excited to be included in this PBS/Colorado Public Television documentary about innovative creative arts programs helping youth thrive and discover their voice. Our Summer 2015 photo storytelling class at Emily Griffith Technical College is featured and participants Juliana, Roovan and Gonzalo shine as they share their stories.
The amazing work of our friends at Youth On Record, Story Center and other great orgs is also featured.
You can view the whole doc May 4th, 7pm on channel 12 (in Colorado) or screen it soon.
For now, here's the short video they made just for Picture Me Here. Thanks so much CPT12!
Imagine 2020 grant:
City of Denver Arts and Venues, Imagine 2020 Denver's Cultural Plan,
and Denver Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs:
We're honored to be selected as an Imagine 2020 fund recipient and also a mini grant from Denver's Office of Refugee and Immigrant Affairs! These grants will support our upcoming project working with participants of Colorado Welcome Back, a great program of the Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning. This program helps foreign-trained healthcare professionals re-establish careers in healthcare in Colorado. We'll help these participants share their remarkable stories in their own images and words.
