NEA Big Read • Great Lakes Bay Region Kickoff Sept. 18th

The Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum invites the community to gather for the “NEA Big Read: Great Lakes Bay Region” Saginaw County Kickoff event celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month on Saturday, September 18, from 1 to 4 pm. 

The kickoff event, held in the Museum’s Sculpture Garden weather permitting, will include free food, entertainment and hands-on art activities for the whole family. Mariachi band father-daughter duo, David Chantaca and Roxanne M. Chantaca, will perform and share stories and the history of Mariachi. Guests of all ages will be able to make their own traditional “Papel Picado,” Mexican flag decorations, and The ART Club Hub sculpting staff, led by founder John Martinez, will also lead guests in making Aztec dragon sand sculptures. Tips and tricks booklets and toys for sculpting will be provided for all budding artists. 

“The ‘NEA Big Read: Great Lakes Bay Region’ kickoff event launches a ten-month long initiative with three counties centered around one book with the goal of bringing people to celebrate community and culture” states Megan McAdow, director of the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum. The partner organizations have selected the book “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros in part because it is accessible to a wide range of ages and has both a Spanish-translated edition as well as a children’s companion book called “Hairs/Pelitos” that help ensure everyone in the family can connect around the stories and themes, including “neighbors and neighborhoods.” 

Through the “Mi Casa, Su Casa – Sharing Stories about Neighbors and the Places we Call Home” project, guests are invited to share their own stories about neighbors and the places we call home.  What was it like growing up in your neighborhood?  Guests can talk about the good times, the sad times, the challenges, triumphs, friends and family. The “NEA Big Read: Great Lakes Bay Region” initiative wants to build a portrait of the region filled with our community’s stories to view and share. The Museum and the Great Lakes Bay Region will have several opportunities for community members to come and share stories throughout the ten-month long project. A station will be setup during the kickoff event for visitors to record their stories.  

The Kickoff event will also include Mexican cuisine and English and Spanish copies of “The House on Mango Street” and the children’s book “Hairs/Pelitos,” by Sandra Cisneros, will be available for free on a first come, first served basis. Community members are invited to pick up a copy of the book to read before upcoming fall and winter book discussions. More information about the book and distribution sites can be found at marshallfredericks.org/bigread.  

Also in time to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month the Museum will open their latest exhibition, “Time Refocused: Photographs by Luis C. Garza,” In “Time Refocused,” Chicano photographer Luis C. Garza offers a selection of 35 black-and-white silver gelatin prints that document what he witnessed in East Los Angeles of the early 1970s, in the South Bronx of the 1960s, and in Budapest, Hungary, which was the site of the World Peace Conference in 1971 where he met Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. 

Luis C. Garza is an independent curator and photojournalist who recorded the tumultuous social events of the 1960s and 1970s, often on behalf of La Raza magazine, the journalistic voice of the Chicano movement. His images captured the attention of many, and later led to his multi-faceted career in documentary production, arts marketing, event coordination, arts consulting, and exhibition curation. He co-curated the exhibition “Siqueiros in Los Angeles: Censorship Defied” at the Autry Museum of the American West, which elevated awareness of his work as a curator and a photographer. He then collaborated with UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center and The Autry on the blockbuster exhibition “LA RAZA” for The Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA. “Time Refocused: The Photographs of Luis C. Garza” was his first solo exhibition. 

The “NEA Big Read: Great Lakes Bay Region” Midland Kickoff event will be held at Creative 360 Saturday, September 25th from 1 – 5 pm in partnership with the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library. The Bay County Kickoff will be held Tuesday, September 28th at all Bay County Library System branches.

For more information about all programs and events across the three counties, go to the Big Read calendar of events at marshallfredericks.org/bigread. 

The Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum is located on the campus of Saginaw Valley State University, 7400 Bay Road, Saginaw, MI. Museum hours are Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, call (989) 964-7125 or visit the Museum’s website at www.marshallfredericks.org.