The exhibition Border Cantos inspired a multi-disciplanary, community-wide collaboration that continues into the fall of 2016. SJMA’s partners throughout the Bay Area will explore themes of immigration, migration, borders, identity, and social justice in a wide variety of programs, performances, exhibitions, projects, and educational experiences.

Exhibitions and Public Art Projects
Performance Art
Theater
Music
Lectures and Panel Discussions
Film
Community Festivals, Workshops, and Other Programs
Other Partners


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Exhibitions and Public Art Projects

Courtesy of Children’s Discovery Museum

Visible & Invisible: A Hapa Japanese American History
through 2016
Japanese American Museum of San Jose
535 N. 5th St., San Jose
jamsj.org / 408.294.3138

It is believed that by the time of the 2020 United States Census, a majority of Japanese Americans will identify as multiracial. Through photographs, historical artifacts, and multimedia images, Visible & Invisible explores the diverse and complex history of the mixed roots of Japanese American experience.

de Saisset: From Family Name to Artistic Legacy
Jan 15 – Mar 13, 2016
Apr 8 – Jun 12, 2016
de Saisset Museum
at Santa Clara University
500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara
scu.edu/desaisset / 408.554.4528

The de Saisset Museum takes its name from the surname of Ernest de Saisset, a former student at Santa Clara College and an aspiring young painter. He came from a family of note who emigrated from France and settled in San Jose, where they owned considerable property and maintained various business interests. In celebration of the de Saisset Museum’s 60th anniversary, De Saisset: From Family Name to Artistic Legacy explores the story of the organization as it grew from the surname of an ambitious young painter to an accredited university museum. Through a selection of photographs, correspondence, and archival records the exhibition traces key events from Ernest de Saisset’s birth in 1864 to the founding of the Museum in his honor in 1955.

Demarcate: Territorial shift in personal and societal mapping
Feb 28 – May 22, 2016
(opening reception Feb 28)
San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art
560 S. 1st St., San Jose
sjica.org / 408.283.8155

Demarcate: Territorial shift in personal and societal mapping brings together fourteen artists whose work reflects the awareness of geographical territories and boundaries. The artists in Demarcate are inspired by cartographic imagery. From there, each artist takes a different conceptual route to examine themes such as urbanization, the natural environment, the utopia of a unified world where borders are eradicated, and identity as it relates to emotional, social, and political needs to connect with a place.

Immigration: Borders, Boundaries, Beginnings
Mar 2 – Apr 17, 2016
(opening reception Mar 6)
Pajaro Valley Arts
37 Sudden St., Watsonville
pajarovalleyartscouncil.org / 831.722.3062

Cross-Border Graphics / Gráfica Transfronteriza
Mar 15 – Apr 15, 2016
presented by Consulado de México en San José
The Gallery at the Carmen Castellano Fine Arts Center
at San José City College
2100 Moorpark Rd., San Jose
sjcc.edu / 408.288.3785

Twenty Mexican and Mexican-American artists explore their local, global, national and trans-national identity in order to talk about physical and symbolic territorial border crossing.

Badlands: borders from within
Apr 1 – 24, 2016
Works/San José
365 S. Market St., San Jose
workssanjose.org / 408.300.6405

Artists Lordy Rodriguez, Jack Toolin, Wanda Waldera, and Neila Mezynski explore borders from a macro to micro perspective. They map imaginary terrains, contrast landscapes, and evoke individual isolation. The exhibition also includes images and animations from NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.

Mitchell vs. Steinbeck
May 12 – Sep 11, 2016
New Museum of Los Gatos (NUMU)
106 E. Main St., Los Gatos

Through research, documents, photos, ephemera and interviews, this exhibition will look at the historical events that inspired John Steinbeck to write The Grapes of Wrath and the controversy, and literary duel with a neighboring Los Gatos novelist, Ruth Comfort Mitchell, through her book Of Human Kindness, which had a very different take on migrant workers. Mitchell vs. Steinbeck will explore the political landscape and social perspectives that led these two locals to such contrasting conclusions in their work. The audience will be encouraged to think critically about social discourse in our world today, as well as gain an appreciation of the historical part that Los Gatos played in presenting social issues through the lens of literature and the arts.

Hidden Heritages: San José's Pioneer French Families 1848 – 1900
Sep 2016 – Mar 2017
Presented by Sourisseau Academy for State and Local History, City of San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs, and de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University
at San Jose City Hall, Tower Lobby
200 E. Santa Clara St., San Jose
sourisseauacademy.org

The early French community helped settle and form San Jose and lent their names to institutions, streets and buildings. This exhibition will turn the spotlight on six prominent families. Produced in collaboration with the de Saisset Museum.

World Theater (ongoing)
Children’s Discovery Museum
180 Woz Way, San Jose
cdm.org / 408.298.5437

World Theatre is an imaginative play area involving costumes and clothing components from other countries. Children can try on clothing, view themselves in the mirrors, and see images of others dressed in the clothing. This type of role playing activity allows a child to act, move, and respond according to how the clothing makes them feel and provides an opportunity for generational conversation – a grandmother to talk with a grandchild about their traditional clothing growing up, or a parent sharing their cultural journey through clothing with their child. The World Theatre is funded through the Institute of Museum and Library Services as part of Children’s Discovery Museum’s Breaking Ground initiative.

Border Crosser by Chico MacMurtrie
January, 2016
ZERO1
Downtown San Jose / Zero1.org

Rising 40 feet from the ground and arching across an imaginary border before forming a bridge and touching down on the “other side,” Border Crosser is the first of a series of large-scale inflatable robotic sculptures that poetically explore the notion of borders by artist Chico MacMurtrie/ARW. In performance, it gently arches in one of three possible directions before eventually forming a bridge, inviting the public to rethink the notion of borders in a globalized world.

Presented by ZERO1 and supported, in part, by Applied Materials, the City of San José Office of Cultural Affairs and the Lucas Artists Programs at Montalvo Arts Center, and the Arizona State University Art Museum and Herberger Institute School of Art. Border Crosser debuted on the plaza of San José City Hall in January.

Performance Art

Courtesy of Ivan Naranjo and Iliana Ortega

I will erase all the borders with my little feet
by Alice Raymond
Sun, Feb 28, 2016, 2 – 4 PM
San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA)
560 S. 1st St., San Jose
sjica.org / 408.283.8155

Essays on Light
by Ivan Naranjo and Iliana Ortega
Sun, Apr 17, 2016, 2 PM
Presented by Consulado de Mexico en San José
at San Jose Museum of Art
110 S. Market St., San Jose
consulmex.sre.gob.mx/sanjose

This collaboration between video artist Iliana Ortega and Iván composer Naranjo explores different kinds of borders—between sound and sight, day and night, together and apart.

Theater

Courtesy of MACLA

Valley of the Heart by Luis Valdez (world premiere)
Feb 10 – Mar 20, 2016
San Jose Stage Company
(in partnership with El Teatro Campesino)
490 S. 1st St., San Jose
thestage.org / 408.283.7142

’57 Chevy
Written by Cris Franco
Directed by Valerie Dunlap
Starring Ric Salinas of Culture Clash
Mar 11 – 12, 2016, 8 PM
Mar 13, 2016, 2 PM
MACLA (Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana)
510 S. 1st St., San Jose
maclaarte.org/performing-arts
408.998.2783

The Elephant Man by Bernard Pomerance
Mar 17 – Apr 17, 2016
City Lights Theater Company
529 S. 2nd St., San Jose
cltc.org / 408.295.4200

Music

Courtesy of galindog.com

“Resonance” by Guillermo Galindo
Thu, Feb 11, 2016, 7:30 PM
Exploratorium
Pier 15, The Embarcadero, San Francisco
exploratorium.org / 415.528.4444

“Resonant Shadows/Circular Calls”
by Guillermo Galindo
Sun, Mar 6, 2016, 2 PM
MACLA (Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana)
510 S. 1st St., San Jose
maclaarte.org / 408.998.2783

Songs For Social Justice: A Weekend Celebration Of Music, Peace and Human Rights
May 21, 2016, 12 – 4 PM
at New Museum of Los Gatos (NUMU)
106 E. Main St., Los Gatos

NUMU will explore social justice through music and activities, including performances by Sounds Joe and Jack Make and Bean Kaloni Tupou; a “Poe-tree” activity inviting visitors to write lyrics that have moved them or their own poems and write them on “leaves” and attach them to the tree branches; making musical instruments out of found items (recyclables, rubber bands, etc.); and a street art workshop. Screenings of videos will include reinterpretations of Woody Guthrie’s Deportees (Los Gatos Canyon, interviews from the Grammy Museum’s Woody Guthrie Celebration, and other films that support art and activism. Free.

Rio de Mujeres/River of Women
Sat, May 21, 2016, 7 PM
Sun, May 22, 2016, 2 PM
Presented by Opera Cultura
at Mexican Heritage Theater
1700 Alum Rock Ave., San Jose
operacultura.org / 415.845.7216

A mother dreams of escaping the rural life of the river, but is thwarted by her family and her culture. In the end, the spirit of the River and La Llorona take from her what she loves most–her daughter.

Macario
Oct 6 – 16, 2016
Presented by Teatro Visión de San José
at Mexican Heritage Theater
1700 Alum Rock Ave., San Jose
teatrovision.org / 408.294.6621

Lectures and Panel Discussions

Photo by Bearfoot Photography

Lunchtime Lecture: From Border Walls to Borderlands
Wed, Mar 2, 2016, 12 PM
San Jose Museum of Art
110 S. Market St., San Jose
sjmusart.org / 408.271.6840

Creative Minds: Richard Misrach and Guillermo Galindo
Thu, Mar 17, 2016, 7 PM
San Jose Museum of Art
110 S. Market St., San Jose
sjmusart.org / 408.271.6840

Lunch and a Lecture: Cross-Border Art Tech Talk
Fri, Apr 1, 2016, 12 – 2 PM
SOLD OUT!
Presented by Consulado de Mexico en San José
at San Jose Museum of Art
110 S. Market St., San Jose
consulmex.sre.gob.mx/sanjose

Border Cantos: Photography & Music from the US-Mexico Border featuring vocalist Amy X Neuburg
Tue, Apr 26, 2016, 7:30 PM
City Arts & Lectures
Nourse Theater: 275 Hayes St., San Francisco

This City Arts & Lectures event will include an original piece created and performed by Galindo and vocalist Amy X Neuburg, featuring instruments made from border items, and projections of Misrach’s images. Alexis Madrigal will lead a conversation with the artists.

The Jungle and the Beast: A Conversation with Lewis Watts and Oscar Martinez
Fri, Apr 29, 2016, 10 AM – 12 PM
Presented by University of California Santa Cruz / Chicano Latino Research Center
at Merrill Cultural Center, UCSC
clrc.ucsc.edu

Migration is both a process and state. Some migrants move: they fly, cling to moving trains, scale walls, and cross rivers and oceans. Others get stuck—in refugee camps, border cities, or the state's red tape. In The Beast (Los migrantes que no importan) Salvadoran journalist Óscar Martínez accompanied migrants on "the Beast," the train that travels from Central America through Mexico to the United States. UCSC professor emeritus Lewis Watts has captured some of the stasis of migration in his recent photos of “the Jungle,” the makeshift migrant camp in Calais, France. Professor Jennifer González will moderate their conversation. Free and open to the public

Film

Photo by Bearfoot Photography

Maria en tierra de nadie
(2010, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala)
Screening and Q&A with Marcela Zamora
Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 7 – 9 PM
Presented by University of California, Santa Cruz / Chicano Latino Research Center
at Rio Theater
1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz
clrc.ucsc.edu

Juan Juala es John Cage
Screening and conversation
with Zen Cohen and Guillermo Galindo
Fri, May 13, 2016, 7 PM
Montalvo Arts Center
15400 Montalvo Rd., Saratoga
montalvoarts.org / 408.961.5858

Juan Jaula es John Cage is a non-traditional documentary by video artist Zen Cohen about Mexican composer Guillermo Galindo as he confronts of his musical heritage and education against taboos of the musical “avant-garde.” In it, he rehearses with a Mariachi band to perform a John Cage score. The documentary includes interviews with John Cage scholars and musicians, documentation of rehearsals and performances in both San Francisco and Mexico, as well as animations, found footage, and an original score by Guillermo Galindo. This screening will be followed by a conversation with Zen Cohen and Guillermo Galindo led by Bay Area curator Julie Lazar.

My Beautiful Resistance (2014, 8 min) Followed by panel discussion,
“Resistance and Resilience: The Human Face of Undocuqueers”
Sun, May 15, 2016, 1 – 3 PM
Presented by Asian Law Alliance, the Tadaima Project, and Pangea Legal Services.
at San Jose Museum of Art
110 S. Market St., San Jose
asianlawalliance.org / 408.287.9710

Penny Baldado’s short film My Beautiful Resistance (2014, 8 min) documents personal stories by individuals who came to the United States to escape LGBTQ persecution in their home countries. A screening of the film will be followed by a question and answer session with legal experts on some of the immigration issues for the LGBTQ communities, including the obtaining of green cards for spouses, legal requirements for seeking asylum, and other related immigration challenges.

Film Festival: Border Disorder
Fri, Jun 24, 2016, 7 PM
Montalvo Arts Center
15400 Montalvo Rd., Saratoga
montalvoarts.org / 408.961.5858

This screening showcases experimental video art and video documentation by Lucas Artist Fellows and other artists that explores and intervenes in the local and global complexities of the US-Mexico border. It will be followed by a conversation about the work. Featured artists include Ana Teresa Fernandez, Fiamma Montezemolo, and Sergio de la Torre, among others.

Community Festivals, Workshops, and Other Programs

Beren Gao - Courtesy of Asian Pacific Fund

Student Essay Competition: Growing Up Asian in America
Mar – May, 2016
Asian Pacific Fund
465 California St., Suite 809, San Francisco
asianpacificfund.org / 415.395.9985

Growing Up Asian in America provides a unique forum for youth to explore their ideas and identities, as well as celebrate being both Asian and American. Every year, more than 1,000 Bay Area students in kindergarten through 12th grade submit artwork, essays, poems, and video on a specific theme, and compete for $25,000 in cash and prizes. Winners are honored at an awards ceremony at the Asian Art Museum in the month of May during APA Heritage Month. Posters featuring the winning entries are distributed to more than 200 libraries across the Bay Area.

3rd Friday: Beyond Borders
Fri, Apr 15, 2016, 6 – 9 PM
Museum of Art & History
705 Front St., Santa Cruz
santacruzmah.org / 831.429.1964

Meet the people making change happen in Santa Cruz. Share your own projects. Engage with community activism through hands-on workshops, demonstrations, and performances.

Writing Our Lives: Nuestras Vidas Writing Project
Thu, Apr 21, 2016, 5:30 – 7 PM
Presented by Cabrillo College Puente Project
at San Jose Museum of Art
110 S. Market St., San Jose
cabrillo.edu/services/puente

Since fall 2015, students in the Puente Project at Cabrillo College have been writing in journals about their experiences at college and about life in general. Some students have written about crossing the border in order to reach the United States. Others have written on the joys and struggles of succeeding at college. Their poems, essays, and stories each relate unique aspects of what it is like to be a Latino/a college student working toward a successful future. Hear readings from the students in this program, then stay for SJMA’s annual poetry invitational.

5 de Mayo Celebration
Sat, Apr 30, 2016, 3–6:30 PM
Presented by Licencias.us, and Consulado de Mexico en San José
at San Jose Museum of Art
110 S. Market St., San Jose
Event flyer (PDF)

After Dark: Identity
Thu, May 5, 2016, 6 – 10 PM
Exploratorium
Pier 15, The Embarcadero, San Francisco
Exploratorium.org / 415.528.4444

Identify yourself: What defines you against, or within, the context of others? From cells to self-image, take a good look at the biological, psychological, and sociocultural circumstances of our individual and collective identities.

Immigration Resource Fair
Sat, May 14, 2016, 1 – 3 PM
San Jose Public Library
150 E. San Fernando St., San Jose
sjpl.org / 408.808.2000

Receive free immigration resources, services, tips, and information from a variety of community partners.

Ao Dai Festival IV, Celebrating Vietnamese Art and Culture
Sun, May 15, 2016, 3 – 10 PM
presented by Friends of Hue Foundation
at Fairmont Hotel San Jose, 170 S. Market St., San Jose aodaifestival.com

The Ao Dai Festival, a multi-dimensional experience celebrating Vietnamese art and culture returns to downtown San Jose. Dancers and stilt walkers dressed in the traditional Ao Dai and scores of musicians and drummers ignite the festivities in a spectacular pre-show outdoor ceremony set against a tapestry of colored flags and red silk banners. The evening dinner-show extravaganza presents the mythological tale of “Sơn Tinh, Thủy Tinh” set to the music composed and directed by Trần Quảng Nam with the Saigon Ensemble and Le Hoang Band and features the exotic fashions of internationally renown Ao Dai designers. This family-friendly event will be a stunning visual feast appealing to everyone who appreciates beauty, theater, visual arts fashion and cultural diversity. Some events are free, some are ticketed. See the festival website for details.

Immigrant Heritage Month
Jun 2016. FWD.us and Welcome.us

This June, join communities around the country as we celebrate Immigrant Heritage Month 2016. Throughout the month, FWD.us and Welcome.us celebrate both our diversity and our shared American Heritage by telling the stories of individuals that, together, comprise a uniquely American narrative.

San Jose Poetry Festival: Breaking Borders
Sun, Sep 18, 2016, 9 AM – 6 PM
Presented by Poetry Center San Jose and Willow Glen Poetry Group at History Park
1650 Senter Rd., San Jose / pcsj.org

The poetry festival will featuring keynote address by Alejandro Murguia, Poet Laureate of San Francisco.

Other Partners

These additional partners are providing resources, advice, and support for Border Cantos programs as well as future programming to be announced:

History San José
1650 Senter Rd., San Jose
historysanjose.org / 408.287.2290

Japanese American Museum of San Jose
535 N. 5th St., San Jose
jamsj.org / 408.294.3138

San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles
520 S. 1st St., San Jose
sjquiltmuseum.org / 408.971.0323

School of Arts and Culture at Mexican Heritage Plaza
1700 Alum Rock Ave., San Jose
schoolofartsandculture.org / 408.794.6240

Somos Mayfair
370-B S. King Rd., San Jose
somosmayfair.org / 408.251.6900

The Tech Museum of Innovation
201 S. Market St., San Jose
thetech.org / 408.294.8324

Veggielution
647 S. King Rd., San Jose
veggielution.org / 408.634.3276