Bicentenary Celebrations welcome The Hispano American Arts Exhibition

This Hispano-American Arts Exhibition will feature Spanish speaking artists, who will exhibit a range of new works from painting, photography, ceramics and sculpture as a celebration of their cultural diversity. The exhibition sets out to create awareness of Victoria's rich multicultural heritage, placing special value in the Hispano-American cultures’ traditions and common language. The exhibition will open on Thursday 16 September and run until 24 October in the Gabriel Gallery at Footscray Community Arts Centre and will feature a curator talk by Andres J. Uribe-Hidalgo. 

 This exhibition is part of our 2010 F.A.C.T. – Food. Art. Community. Talk.  program which offers you the chance to immerse yourself in a series of unique arts and cultural experiences. Combining the universal passions of food and art,  F.A.C.T.  creates opportunities for communities to come together to talk about and engage in outstanding contemporary culture.
The  F.A.C.T 13 exhibition, “Mutatus - the cultural heritage of Latin America” has been scheduled as our opening event for the “Chilean National Day 2010 – Bicentenary Celebrations” to be held on the weekend of the 18 and 19 September 2010. Melbourne’s West is home to one of Australia’s largest Chilean communities.  In conjunction with Chilean Independence Day and the bicentenary of Chilean federation, this very special festival celebrates the dynamism of Chilean culture through food, song and dance. We are very pleased to have this exhibition curated by Chilean-Australian artist and curator, Andres J. Uribe-Hidalgo.

Andres notes that the Latin word, Mutatus, not only means exchange but is also indicative of something shifting or moving – an altering reality. Culture is what we do, and what we do in contemporary life is always evolving. Although we reference history, there is always something a little bit new and different.  Mutatus is a word that conveys hybridity and in a cultural exchange, the end result is something new yet something that makes us the same; Human. 

Footscray Arts Community Centre and Chile Magazine are extending an invitation to Spanish speaking artists who would like to exhibit new work in this exhibition to join Andres and Footscray Community Arts Centre staff, Michael Brennan and Bernadette Fitzgerald, at the Centre, 45 Moreland Street, Footscray on Sunday 11 July, 1pm-3pm. At this initial meeting Andreas will present his curatorial framework for the exhibition and has asked that artists bring either small scale works or documentation of no more than two works.

Should you require further information about the exhibition or the meeting on the 11 July, please do not hesitate to contact Bernadette Fitzgerald, Producer, Arts & Learning, on 93628810 or by email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .
 You can also contact  Luis Veliz on 0402568143 or by email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .  We are very much looking forward to meeting you and your joining us to celebrate the art of our Spanish speaking community.

Kind regards
 

Bernadette Fitzgerald
Producer, Art & Learning