Speak! Salon at Vault Virginia
Palabras para el cambio / Words for Change
A Bilingual ARTivism Workshop with Mirta Toledo
About the Event:
DESCRIPTION
Join Argentine artist Mirta Toledo for a bilingual, hands-on ARTivism workshop exploring how words and images can become tools for creative expression and social change. Participants will create their own ARTivist Posters for Change using words, phrases, images, and other materials collected from magazines, newspapers, and printed publications. Through collage, writing, and drawing, participants will transform these fragments into unique visual pieces that reflect ideas they care about—from identity and belonging to community, memory, diversity, and social change. The creative activity will be accompanied by an informal conversation with Mirta about her artistic practice, her approach to ARTivism, and the relationship between art, identity, and social engagement. The workshop will be bilingual (Spanish/English), and all levels of Spanish are welcome. No previous artistic experience is necessary.
INSTRUCTIONS / WHAT TO BRING
Before the workshop:
Start your own small “box of words and images” / “caja de palabras e imágenes.” Look through old magazines, newspapers, flyers, catalogs, or other printed materials and cut out:
words or short phrases that speak to you, in Spanish and/or English
interesting fonts, letters, and typography
photographs, illustrations, colors, textures, or patterns
anything that you might want to transform or give a new meaning through art
Bring your collection to the workshop. We will also have extra materials available, so don’t worry if you arrive without anything!
Mirta making Change through ART
About the Artist
Mirta Toledo is an Argentine visual artist whose multidisciplinary practice explores identity, diversity, migration, memory, and belonging. Her work draws from personal and collective histories and frequently engages questions surrounding cultural and racial identity, with particular attention to women, Afro-Argentine experiences, and migrant communities. Her artistic practice invites viewers to reconsider fixed categories of identity and recognize diversity as an essential part of contemporary society.
Mirta Toledo’s official website: https://mirtatoledoarte.com/paintings/
