Opening Night + Performance+Community Outreach
Saturday, July 15th | 6pm-11pm
Admission: FREE & Open to the Public
Fort Lauderdale, FL – What’s Your Elephant — (The Elephant in the Room) is an idiom for an obvious truth that is either being ignored, or otherwise unaddressed. The purpose of this exhibit is to provide a safe place for issues and topics that are normally hidden from public view. Through visual and performance art, the artists participating in this event will share secrets and taboos, discussing openly to find solutions for individual and collective emancipation. Attendees are invited to enter the ‘Confessional’, an interactive safe space installation to share their ‘elephant’.
What’s Your Elephant will be hosted by 1310 Gallery residents Niki Lopez, visual artist, & designer, and Alana DaCosta, singer/songwriter.
Featured artists include: Niki Lopez, Alana DaCosta, AJ Grossman, Ana Rossi, Cheryl Brown, Macarena Zilveti, Mila Hajjar, Cesca Veo, Alex Tuzinsky, Chire Regans, Tabatha Mudra, Jose Silva, Yudelka Tavera, Zeal Harris, Artists for Black Lives Matter collective and SunServe Youth
Opening night performance featuring: Alana DaCosta, Profound Breath, We’re Weird, and Nephii Love, and Venus Rising
Lopez and DaCosta will also host an interactive workshop called “What’s Your Elephant”, where participants can use creative arts in a safe space to reveal individual or societal “elephants”. “The obvious is oftentimes ignored and swept under the rug. Some people may chose to never face it,” says DaCosta, who also has a MS in Mental Health Counseling. “Yet, we all have creative energy and have the power of choice to free ourselves of whatever makes us uncomfortable. Through creative expression, many can learn to address the issue and share with others who most likely have their own elephant”
“It’s about acknowledging it (the elephant), owning it, so that it doesn’t define you.” Says Lopez, an artist and activist with her own elephant that will be revealed at the exhibit.
As a part of this movement, Lopez & DaCosta ask that the public participate by submitting their unspoken truth AND use the hashtag #whatsyourelephant on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram.
Community Partner: SunServe- SunServe is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit social services agency serving the LGBTQ community in South Florida. Mission: Recognizing that the entire LGBTQ community has the right to quality care, our mission is to provide critical life assistance and professional mental health services with an emphasis on economically disadvantaged, marginalized youth and senior adults in the greater South Florida metropolitan area.
Sponsors include: Broward Cultural Division, Niki Lopez Creative, Very GTV, KR8tiVE Uprising, Crown Wine, Sideways Confections, Itals Vegan, Hemplade and the 1310 Gallery.
Funding for this project is provided in part by the Broward County Board of County Commissioners as recommended by the Broward Cultural Council.
This exhibition contains materials of a sensitive nature, viewers discretion is advised.
1310 Gallery is an artist-run collective that offers over 2400 square feet of exhibition space split into 3 levels, and housed within ArtSpace’s live/work facility, Sailboat Bend Artist Lofts. 1310 Gallery rotates art exhibitions monthly and also hosts performances and workshops. 2013 Broward New Times “Best Art Gallery of the Year”. The gallery is open by appointment in addition to the Opening & Closing receptions. For further information please call 305-975-6262.
RSVP: https://whatsyourelephantjuly2017.eventbrite.com
Find link to images: http://bit.ly/wye2017art
To learn more about “What’s your Elephant’, visit our website: nikiartstudio.com/whats-your-elephant/
Events Schedule:
Mon. July 10, 3pm-5pm ‘What’s Your Elephant ?’ Community workshop at SunServe (Private Event)
Sat. July 15, 6-11PM Opening Night + Performance
Sat. July 29, 7-10PM Thou Art Woman – LGBTQ Open Mic + Poetry
Sat. August 3, 7-9PM WYE Artists’ Talk & Panel: 7-9PM
Wed. August 9, 7:30-9:30PM Meet the 1310 Bandits
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Short Film Screening & Discussion
Sat. August 12 WYE Community Workshop: 3-5:30PM and Soft Closing: 6-8 PM
More info: nikiartstudio.com | alanadcosta.com | sailboatbendartists.com
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