BMoCA is proud to partner with Motus Theater to present two consecutive exhibitions in Present Box featuring visual artists Cindy Loya and Victor Escobedo paired with UndocuAmerica monologists Kiara Chávez and Cristian Solano-Córdova. This partnership aims to de-escalate divisive beliefs surrounding immigration policies by amplifying intergenerational, family-centric narratives reimagined through alternative media, including quilting and puppetry.

Cindy Loya, a Denver-based mixed media artist, was born in California and raised in Mexico until she returned to the US at sixteen. She uses textiles as a medium to narrate stories through various techniques, including embroidery, quilting, felting, and appliqué. For this project, Loya collaborated with UndocuAmerica monologist Kiara Chávez to visually represent her story Returning Home. Although Loya and Chávez essentially moved in opposite directions across the border, their stories overlap as testimony to the power of lineage and the heartache of separation.

Motus Theater creates original theater to facilitate community conversations on critical issues of our time.Working at the intersection of storytelling and public policy, Motus uses the power of art to build alliances across diverse segments of our community and country. In 2022, Motus received Westword’s Best Theater Company Programming award.

UndocuAmerica: Reclaiming Our Presence: In 2022, muralist Edica Pacha installed 12 murals in Colorado featuring 10 different Motus Theater UndocuAmerica project monologists with DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). The murals were accompanied by QR codes linking directly to videos of the monologists sharing their stories. Some murals were targets of vandalism fueled by anti-immigrant sentiment. Reclaiming Our Presence is an empowering and healing response in which the undocumented community can feel their stories and lives uplifted in the face of erasure and aggression. It affirms community power with the message that, when community members get hurt, we have the opportunity and the responsibility to coalesce, heal, and come back stronger.

About the Artist
Cindy Loya is a Mexican American mixed media artist. She spent most of her early childhood and young adulthood in Mexico and currently resides and works in the Denver metro area. Her art is inspired by the dualities of being Mexican American, feminism, and nature. She combines a variety of mediums, including paint, paper, textile, and digital tools, to create illustrations. Loya uses art as a vehicle for storytelling and a way to inspire viewers to connect to their shared heritage and community.

About Present Box:
Present Box is a series of temporary exhibitions that invite artists to transform BMoCA’s lobby and front entrance into innovative installations, performances, and events. The site-specific projects are intended to encourage artists to create work outside their comfort zones and to foster interactive participation. Artists are also urged to explore themes that are relevant for our present time.

BMoCA’s Present Box exhibitions are generously supported by the City of Boulder, Boulder Arts Commission, Community Foundation of Boulder County, Scientific & Cultural Facilities District, Colorado Creative Industries, and National Endowment for the Arts.

Upcoming exhibition events
4/13/23 Undocumented Stories: Performance & Reception