A solitary orange chair in the middle of a courtyard. Doors set into colorful walls, dappled with sunlight and shadow. A mural of a fortune-teller, marred by a crack. More than 100 five-by-seven-inch photographs stretch in rows across a white wall at the Centro de Artes in San Antonio. They look like images a traveler would collect during vacation as she explores unfamiliar territory, training her camera on eye-catching details. But the title tells a different story: “Retomando Nostalgias” is the work of three artists from three countries, revisiting memories of home.
“It’s like one collective nostalgic memory,” said Venezuelan artist Hayfer Brea Rodriguez, through an interpreter, of his and his colleagues’ photography.
The photos are part of Admitted: USA, an exhibition of work created by artists in the inaugural round of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program in San Antonio. The initiative pairs artists who were born outside the United States, or whose parents were born outside the United States, with mentor artists who orient them to the local creative scene and help them fine-tune their professional skills. NYFA started the project in 2007 and, since 2017, has expanded it to other cities including Detroit, Newark, and Oakland.
