Unidas por Hilos

Artists Statement:

Bordando Memorias (Embroidering Memories) is a community art project led by Maria Amalia Wood during her 2022-2023 art residency at Synergy Ventures Foundation. As a Latina immigrant, Maria Amalia is especially interested in making space for the exploration of others’ immigration journeys throughout her community art projects.

The art of embroidery has been used in Latin America for centuries. Embroidery has given women a platform to create surface designs for pleasure, business, therapy, and even protest. Inspired by Wisconsin’s native and invasive plants, Maria Amalia invited Latina immigrants to embroider flowers native to their countries and to Wisconsin as they shared memories of home.

The project culminated in an exhibition at Goodman South Madison Public Library featuring the embroidered self-portraits of some of the participants.

Although the project concluded in 2023, the participants decided to continue the embroidery group and it’s now called Unidas por Hilos (United by Threads). Visit their project page for more information on how you can get involved!

Exhibiting Artists:
Wenit Montero
Maura J. García
Valeria Arias
Irma Gomez
Ireri Andrea Muñiz Ortega
Naomi Lathrop
Rosibel Bermudez McHugh
Maria Amalia
Gloria Posada
Gloria Castillo
Martha Useche

This project was supported in part by the Madison Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, Dane Arts, the Madison Public Library, UW-Madison Division of the Arts’ Artivism Student Action Program, and Synergy Ventures Foundation.

Photo credit: BokehTum Photography, Mayela C. Torrez, and Maria Amalia

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Flip through to see the artist statement and embroidered portraits.