On Feb. 28, the University of Connecticut’s William Benton Museum of Art held a free and public interactive two-part workshop surrounding some works from Juan Sánchez and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and their implementations of images and text. The event was run by curator and academic liaison, Amanda Douberley, and curator of education, Matthew Marshall.
The event began with a reflection on two of Sánchez’s works. Douberley put a sheet of paper over the signs that gave extra context to what the works of art were about so that the observations would be purely based on the art itself. She encouraged attendees to “say what we see.”
The top piece of art had a Christian prayer card and a picture of what seems to be a textile on the left hand said. The right-hand side had words written which said, “Chango y Oshun Obatala y Ogun Yemaya, Eleque y Oya con fuego y espirita la lucha continua [with fire and spirit the fight continues] may we, the third world, first world brothers and sisters be delivered from democracy’s prisons fuego y espirito may our spirits ring true.”
The bottom of the paragraph was obscured by barbed wires. Someone in the audience recognized the names at the beginning as gods from the religion of Santería, which is a syncretic religion that mixes Yoruba traditions, Catholicism and Spiritism, most commonly practiced in Afro-Caribbean countries.
The bottom piece of art by Sánchez was even more personal, addressing the artist’s love for his mother and her positive impact on him despite her struggles. There were three pictures on the top of the art piece: two pictures and one drawing that seems to be from the artist’s childhood or otherwise drawn by a child. There was also a drawing of what seems to be a flower, similar to a hibiscus on the right-hand side of the art piece, a Christian prayer card of the Mother Mary and an infantile Jesus Christ on the bottom right.
Over a charcoal gray backing and a red heart drawn over it, the text on the art piece says “…mother was very frustrated… she couldn’t get a job, she wanted to get off welfare. I never looked upon my mother as a woman; she was always my mother. I never looked upon her as a Black Puerto Rican woman who was oppressed—She was just mommy. She’s fat…I remember snuggling between her neck and peace, you know it’s peace, ‘cause nobody can hurt you when you’re with Mommy…”
An audience member related to Sánchez’s Puerto Rican identity as someone who is Puerto Rican themselves and appreciated the representation and commentary. “It is personal; we bring our own experiences through these works of art,” said Douberley.
Douberley and Marshall then led the audience to the center of the room, where Quick-to-See Smith’s accordion book was displayed in a glass case. Douberley gave some context to Quick-to-See Smith’s background, saying that she was an Indigenous American activist who was still active until her passing in January 2025.
Quick-to-See Smith made the book to appreciate nature, drawing a golden bunny, a wolf, a humanoid deer-like figure and a human-like figure holding pieces of nature on the pages. The audience questioned why the text was typed in a certain font instead of written or drawn.
Someone noticed that the quote from singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, which had the line “we are golden,” was deliberately put inside of the golden bunny. The audience wondered why Joni Mitchell and artist Leonardo da Vinci were quoted. On top of that, the black and white and accented brown—or extremely light orange-yellow—coloring used throughout the art piece was also a deliberate choice, which made for an interesting design.
The second part of the interactive workshop was held in the education center. Marshall took the time to recommend the audience to check out the ceramicist Minnie Negoro’s exhibit, as well as the digital media and design faculty exhibit, before entering the room.
Inside the education center, audience members sat down and used markers, colored pencils and magazine clippings in conjunction with Quick-to-See Smith’s words printed on loose pieces of paper to create their own art pieces, which shows the collaboration between image and word.
“With a cue from words, it could open up a new world,” said Marshall.
The audience and the hosts both spent about 30 minutes in this relaxing and calm environment simply creating based on the prompt. A conversation about academic careers occurred.
“We do a lot of youth programming,” said Marshall when explaining why all the scissors were so small.
On the creation of art, as attendees were doing, Douberley said, “We go to museums and look at the labels, but there’s a lot more to it.”
On March 28, there will be an event held at The Benton called “Art Encounters: Standing in Solidarity” that will draw from the Minnie Negoro exhibit as well as Roger Shimomura’s art about Japanese incarceration camps in the United States during World War II.
The interactive part will be making an origami crane to show support for Tsuru for Solidarity, “a non-violent, direct-action project of Japanese American social justice advocates working to end detention sites and support front-line immigrant and refugee communities,” according to the UConn events calendar.