Hope and Resilience Amid Crisis

Imperial County has been California’s hardest-hit COVID-19 hotspot. Yet beneath the numbers and headlines are lives who have endured migration, injustice, inequality, and yet retain their dignity and hope.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, artists have come together to create art about hope and resilience. This community is not new to hardship. The mix of chronic health and economic hardships make shocks like a recession or global pandemic disproportionately felt in a community of migrant families and essential workers. In moments of crisis, long-standing injustices and inequalities sharpen, but so does the hope and resilience that sustains a vibrant community.

The art exhibit strives to seize the transformative power of art to break from the mass media's narrative that focuses on our pain. Here, artists share our own story and highlight our community's resilience as we struggle toward social, racial, health, and environmental justice during the time of COVID. 

This weeklong exhibit is a record of the creative labor of artists from the Imperial and Mexicali Valleys. Submissions remain open for the duration of the exhibit, September 23 - October 2, 2020

Hosted by the Imperial Valley Equity & Justice Coalition - Advocates for community empowerment, social & environmental justice, and health equity.

Honoraria funds for artists provided by a grant from the Latino Community Foundation’s “Love Not Fear (COVID-19 Response)” fund.

Thank you also to our fiscal sponsor, Comite Civico del Valle