A 2023 Thank You on NYE 123123

Numbers matter. This year, with the support and collaboration of public and private agencies and organizations across the country and around the world, #PapalotlProject engaged well over 9000 online, 6000 in person and 800 intergenerational participants. Through more than 50 unique, site specific, presentations, workshops and performances, Papalotl Project enhanced access, awareness and appreciation of art and culture, while building sustainable knowledge sharing networks. Papalotl Project is a social impact venture with a decade of proven results. Over 80% of participants report say they aquire new knowledge and would like to experience another #PapalotlProject presentation, workshop or performance.

Thank you for your support and collaboration over the past year, looking forward to co-creating even more meaningful experiences in the year to come.  

Our year at a glance:

Please follow us at @papalotlproject for updates, presentation dates and upcoming opportunities to engage and connect. 

Learn more about #PapalotlProject

The Beginning of Winter Solstice Week

Winter Solstice Week

Family Slide Project - Day 1

Pics by TChadwick

12.17.23

South Florida Celebrates #MiamiArtWeek!

As we slide gently into the most anticipated cultural adventure of the year, South Florida turns its attention to the sights, sounds and delights of Miami Art Week.

This year, artists with ancestral ties to this particular island on Mother Earth are getting a long awaited spotlight. For the past ten years, the cultural and arts sector has demonstrated a slowly growing awareness of the importance of including and highlighting Indigenous artists within their exhibition and programming initiatives. The first to appear in Art Basel Conversations at Miami Beach was Edgar Heap of Birds, followed by the late Jim Denomie at NADA. Recently, a number of gallerists are representing artists Indigenous to this continent, including Duane Linklater, Nicholas Galanin and Jeffrey Gibson who is set to represent the USA at next year's 60th Biennale di Arte Venezia. This year in Art Basel's pre-show press release, Saint Paul, Minnesota-based Ponca artist Julie Buffalohead was featured as a notable addition to the 2023 fair which opens next week. 

Additional opportunities to experience art by Indigenous Peoples of the Americas include numerous local and regional exhibitions on during Art Basel/ Miami Art Week. Here are a few options to consider:

Friday, December 1st 7 pm opening for Art In Motion Biennial featuring works by South Florida-based Indigenous artists in a print catalog and digital exhibition at IPC Space (this day also marks the 35th World AIDS Day)

Saturday, December 2nd 10 am to 4 pm opening for Ee Litch Ko at Okalee Village

Sunday, December 3rd 6 pm VIP preview of Afrikin Art Fair which includes work by Belizean-American photographer Norman Reneau

Tuesday December 5th 6:30 pm VIP preview Art Miami 

Wednesday December 6th 5 pm VIP/ Press preview Spectrum at booth 802

Thursday, December 7th 4 pm Art basel Vernissage VIP preview

Friday, December 8th 11 am Art Basel public opening

Saturday, December 9th 1 pm Art Basel Conversations

Sunday, December 10th 12 pm Human Rights Day/ Miami Art Week closing day

Saturday, January 6th Chehantamo closing day

Tuesday, January 16th Yaat Ya Oke opening

Sunday, April 14th Yaat Ya Oke closing day

Saturday, April 20th Biennale opening day

Monday, September 2nd Maya Hidden Worlds closing day

Sunday, November 24th Biennale closing day

Tara A. Chadwick

tara-chadwick.square.site

Belizean Artists Flourish During Miami Art Week

Following a path set by her mother and sister, Belizean-Canadian artist curator Tara Chadwick joins Belizean-American Norman Reneau in representing the magic of "The Jewel," as they affectionately dub their Mesoamerican homeland, in one of the most exciting exciting events of the year: Miami Art Week. 

Reneau gives audiences an intimate glimpse into the cultural heritage of the Garinagu or Garifuna People in Afrikin Art Fair opening Sunday, December 3 at Maison Afrikin Art Fair, Scott Galvin Community Center, 1600 NE 126th Street, North Miami, FL 33181. Simultaneously, Reneau will be exhibiting "Garifuna Spirituality" at William Grant Still Arts Center, 2520 South Westview Street, Los Angeles, CA 90016.

"Emergency Shawl: Golden River Repair"

...a site specific interaction by TChadwick 10.7.23 on the West Bank of the Mississippi River Gorge 

overlooking Science Museum of Minnesota,

Saint Paul, MN

Meanwhile, back here in the Sunshine state, Chadwick will present an exciting new digital work "FlaminGoes" in her debut participation in Spectrum Art Fair, booth 802 with Artbox.Project opening December 6th at Mana Wynwood Convention Center. Chadwick will also be premiering a new place-based piece titled "Emergency Shawl," extending her Golden Hour Series for #GlobalDayofClimateAction in this year's Art In Motion Biennial online at http://aimbiennial.org/tara-a-chadwick and available in print at thirteen local galleries and museums across South Florida. Details at Art In Motion Biennial.

You can see more work samples by #TaraAChadwick at tara-chadwick.square.site/gallery.

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All Her Flowers!!!

Last night I met an icon, a shero, a legend. Last night Miami-Dade College, Green Family Foundation and Books & Books brought the incredible Joan Baez to the Wolfsonian Campus for opening day of the 40th #MiamiBookFair. 

It was magic grounded in nature and wisdom earned through an entire lifetime of action-taking. 

Like Dolores Huerta this summer, Joan Baez came to Florida reminding us that democracy depends on us to keep motivated, keep moving and do whatever we can to be disciplined in staying hopeful and organizing together. 

I had witnessed the simple power of human cooperation at her Zocalo concert with Mercedes Sosa in the late 90s. The concert was free and open to the public and thousands were in attendance. I had grown up going to see Jazz greats with my grandfather at the Ontario Place Forum, and, like the ampitheatre section of The Forum, Zocalo had no chairs. I instantly fell in love with each of their unique voices, presence and stories. As a mid-sized Maya standing among a sea of giant Mexicas, my view of the stage was limited. But the power of collective action was demonstrated in real time that memorable evening - some among the crowd beseeched everyone take a seat on the immaculate, warm concrete that covers most of the ancient Tenochtitan captal. There were those who resisted, but eventually everyone participated in this incredibly simple and profoundly poweful exercise activating democracy. Once we are all comfortably on the ground, we all had a perfect view of the stage. 

Thank you Joan. For your years of struggle and determination to keep finding your path to who you are, and for inspiring us to keep searching for ways we each can each become the best of who we are - together. 

Love,

Bawshkeengwabigun aka Tara Chadwick

Joan Baez at Miami Book Fair - intro by Kimberly Joy Green + audience Q&A

Interview with Mitchell Kaplan in The Miami Times reflecting on the formation of the very first Miami Book Fair in 1984. click for article

International Archaeology Day 2023

This #InternationalDayOfArchaeology, we pause - once again - to remember and honour all the bright lights who have now ascended to help illuminate the night time sky. Some are currently seated at the community ofrenda, while others remain anonymously close to our hearts.

We rest, and grieve, and reflect and heal on the road to regaining our resolve and strength. 

📷 Nedahness Greene for #PapalotlProject

Thank you to all who are treading this path toward connection, community, and collaboration. 

The road is not always easy, however there is always time for friendships to be made. 

Bawshkeengwabigwun 🪻

Place of the Beginning

This Saturday, #PapalotlProject travelled to Gawkawbeekong for the reopening of #MayaHiddenWorldsRevealed at the Science Museum of Minnesota. In stark contrast to the 2013 world premiere, there were no banners, no fanfare and no news crews. There had been a members preview the evening before, but this opening day was literally just that. After travelling to 10 cities across the country, about 2 million people have visited so far, hopefully inspired by the beauty, knowledge, traditions and dedication of our ancestral and contemporary Mesoamerican artists, scientists, statespeople and culture workers. There is so much to learn about being a good human relative both within the exhibition and beyond. Math, science, physics, poetry, chemistry, diplomacy, geography, family, relationships, time and space are all in there along with activites to try, videos to watch and touch screens to play with. We stayed for five hours, and for us, it was not enough time to go completely through everything.

Re-opening circle 10/07/23

Photo by Nedahness Greene

Science Museum of Minnesota is a forward thinking legacy science and natural history museum located on the bank of the Mississippi River in downtown Saint Paul. They have made community consultation and engagement an intregal part of the institution's strategic and operational policy. Still, as in any organization, there is always room for new ideas, testing, evaluation and improvement. Sometimes there is even more room than anyone even realizes. 

Golden River Repair: Emergency Shawl

temporary site specific interaction

by Tara A. Chadwick 10/07/23

We arrived as eager and welcome guest visitors, excited to reconnect with our younger selves and our friends we haven't seen for so long. We were also eager to reconnect with the artifacts, some of which are also like old friends to us, while others are more like that one remaining photograph of the favorite grandmother your grandmother often talked about. These humans and artifacts are part of our extended family. 

Together we all form a cohesive story of our present. Where we are, how we got here, what we remember, how we relate to one another, and our vision for the future. We learn who we are from our family and that knowledge propels us to learn about each other. Which is precisely what happened. As a result of our visit, we reconnected with friends and also made new ones. 

Opening words

Photo by Nedahness Greene

The Science Museum accompanied us as we co-created a safe and trusting space to engage with each other as well as those behind the wall of plexiglass. It was a new model for collaboration unfurling organically between the visitors, artifacts, museum space, staff and the exhibition itself. We were able to exchange both information and emotion about what this space means for us. And hopefully, open a pathway to more intentional cross-generational, co-creation between communities and their museums. 

Reconnecting

Photo by Nedahness Greene

Always grateful for the incredible support of my former coworkers and colleagues who continue to offer their friendship, feedback, collaboration and mentorship. Thanks for being there Lea & George, Lisa, Jake, Mike, John, Liza & Mark. And I am also thankful to my new friends Dave, Nedahness & Melissa.

Thanks to my fellow Cogenerate Social Innovation Fellow, Libby Stegger of Move for America (and a member of the Science Museum of Minnesota), we are so grateful that you and your crew came out to share part of our day!

Tara & Libby

And what can I say to the incredible young lady who grew up in the flash of two decades to become a leader in our industry, thank you Ilona, I am so glad to have met you again!!!

Ilona, Tara & Melissa

Rosetta, Mictla, Tara & Ron

To Rebekah, thank you for hosting us and continuing to carry out this work. 

Tara, Mictla & Rebekah

Tara Chadwick

10/09/23

World Tourism Day - Contributions to the Greater Good

Today marks the end of a two day United Nations celebration marking the 43rd anniversary of #WorldTourismDay. 

As I reflected on the theme for this year "tourism & green investments" I realized that I have now been actively contributing to the tourism sector for 5 decades. 

Here is visual selection of a few of these projects and partnerships:

Tara Chadwick celebrates #WorldTourismDay with a visual reflection on her five decades of contributions to the tourism, art, culture and heritage industry sector.

1980s

Beginning in 1983, Tara participated in the earliest iterations of the Miami/Broward Carnival. Later she began her career in museology as a spring break student trainee at the Royal Ontario Museum. During high school, Tara's out of school time volunteer position as IMP on capital campaign committee earned her a share in the Saint Catharines Historical Museum.

1990s

During the 1990s Tara earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in socio-cultural Anthropology, attended archaeological field school and served as museologist for the Government of Belize in the creation of its first ever archaeological site museums and visitor centers. She also worked with the Government of Ontario and Chippewas of Rama First Nation to start a youth radio station a few months before the advent of the internet. 

2000s

During the 2000s Tara co-founded a community based environmental justice initiative that included partnerships with a local theatre company. 

2010s

In the 2010s Tara was active in the final stages of development of the travelling exhibition #MayaHiddenWorldsRevealed and continued her environmental work.

2020s

The 2020s necessitated a pivot and much reflection on the half century of work accomplished. This resulted in a widening of the field and narrowing of the focus to inspire the world to take meaningful action on behalf of our environment, each other, and all beings.

My work started at home with myself and family, expanded to my neighborhood and community, and has now traveled all the way around the world and back again. 

I am thankful to each and every person who continues to hold open just a crack in the armour around all our hearts, to pause and really listen for the possibilities that will lead us to a prosperous, healthy and sustainable future, and especially for those who say yes. 

Tara

🌎❤️🦋🌱🎉

Tara-Chadwick.square.site 

Tara Chadwick presenting new work in Zurich

Broward County, FL artist Tara Chadwick presents new work at Swiss Art Expo in Zurich, Switzerland this week. 

Expanding on recent success touring the  #GoldenHour and #Matriarch series across Europe and the US propelling a growing global consciousness of the connections between family, community, government and environment, Chadwick's newest work, #GoldenCascade, reflects the importance of biodiversity and climate to human health and wellness. 

Swiss Art Expo takes place at Zurich Hauptbahnof Platz during the fall folk festival September 6 - 10 and welcomes over 400,000 local, regional and international visitors. 

Info, enquiries and more art at Tara Chadwick.

Seeding the Papalotl (Butterfly) Project

Papalotl (Butterfly) Project is an interdisciplinary, multigenerational,  intercultural endeavor to increase wellness by taking action locally on sustainable development goals being addressed globally. 

This project and methodology has grown out of a lifetime of immersive, community based learning and leadership and consists of many volunteers, collaborators and cogenerators.

A short documentation of reflections from a decade ago after serving as teacher and mentor in the Twin Cities Region provide some of the project background:

Tara A. Chadwick On Generating Future Leaders

Papalotl (Butterfly) Project is available for public and private workshops, presentations, residencies and keynotes. Details and info at book Tara Chadwick. 

Sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture. the Florida Council on Arts and Culture and the National Endowment for the Arts. Papalotl (Butterfly) Project is an active partner with the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. 

Matriarch migration

For Immediate Release:

August 11, 2023, 

Fort Lauderdale, FL. 

Finally, after launching as a billboard during #ArtMiami/ Art Basel week followed by a year of prestigious gallery showings in London and Venice, the iconic original canvas print version of "Matriarch" has returned to South Florida. 

"Matriarch" framed photo paper print was first shown at Alliance for the Arts in Naples and now resides in the permanent collection of Akeesha Footman in Ontario, Canada. The canvas print was part of Anima Mundi, and now appears in the exhibition catalogue.

"Matriarch" was also exhibited in Palma de Mallorca, Spain last November, then returned as a large scale digital installation at Art Box Expo in Wynwood during Art Basel Miami.

Tara Chadwick is exhibiting two new  "Matriarch-inspired" works at the upcoming Swiss Art Expo in Zurich, including "Matriarch's Grandchild Speaks" which premiered this spring in Basel & NYC. The artists' reception in Zurich takes place at the main train station exhibit hall on September 9th. (Event tickets still available if anyone can or will be in Zurich that weekend!)

View recent works or email for enquiries at tara-chadwick.square.site. 

Monarchs & Milkweed Bioblitz

 

Dearest Colleagues & Collaborators:

Welcome to the final days of our epically short summer! Only three weeks now 'till the first day of school and there's still so much summer fun and back to school prep still to make happen. I want to remind you of my open invitation to participate in #PapalotlProject. There are several different ways we can cogenerate exciting interactive enrichment opportunities for yourselves and for your communities.

1. Join the bioblitz this week by taking photos of milkweed, monarchs, flowers or other butterflies and send them along with your name and location & tag #PapalotlProject.

2. Sign up to request a #PapalotlProject presentation in person or via livestream in September to participate in the 2023-24 symbolic migration.

3. Attend an upcoming #PapalotlProject presentation at Sunset Lakes Community Center (dates attached below).

Let me know if you'd like to meet to receive your complimentary seed packet of milkweed or marigold flowers - it's a perfect time to plant now for autumn flowers!!

Yours truly,

Tara Chadwick

#PapalotlProject

tara-chadwick.square.site

Matriarch's Grandchild Speaks in Basel, Switzerland

June 5, 2023

Basel, Switzerland

Today on this 50th United Nations observance of World Environment Day, Broward County artist innovator Tara Chadwick announced the newest piece in the Papalotl series will be on view June 15-18 during Art Basel in Basel, Switzerland. 

"Matriarch's Grandchild Speaks" expands on themes of transformation, regeneration, and  restoration. Initiated to inspire social  engagement and reflection on wellness, nature and future, this experimental work juxtaposes global goals of human and environmental rights with a visual analysis of where we are in our trajectory toward justice.

Biodiversity, cycles and choices are key conceptual elements while starkly contrasting mono and poly chromatic imagery provide the primary visual content. The first work in the Papalotl series, "Matriarch" just completed a world tour beginning at Alliance for the Arts in Florida's Paradise Coast, stopping in LA, London, Zurich, Rome, Venezia, Mallorca and back here to Wynwood during Art Basel Miami Beach. 

The series prompted the launch of an award winning interdisciplinary social innovation:  #PapalotlProject, bringing elders and children together to share stories about science, food, culture and art. Check out Papalotl Project on Instagram and follow the path of the Matriarch series on Instagram @wabigun.

Contact: 

Papalotl Project 786-671-8272

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Local Artist Featured in Prestigious National Innovation Showcase

May 25, 2023

Broward County, FL

This week local artist and producer Tara Chadwick was featured in the prestigious Cogenerate The Future of Together Innovation Showcase for recently launching #PapalotlProject, bringing elders and children together to share stories and wisdom about  science, food, art and agriculture. 

The showcase served as the finale of a year long fellowship to support project development through collaborative skills acquisition, for example iterative design thinking, and cogenerational approaches to social problem solving. A replay of the event is available for viewing at Cogenerate Showcase Clip

Today it was announced that Tara Chadwick's "Introduction to #PapalotlProject" has been selected for the One Minute Film Festival in  Winter Park this Saturday. Virtual and in person tickets are available at Winter Park Library

For more information visit instagram or Tara-Chadwick.