June 27, 2019 612 PM
MARFA – The Blackwell School Alliance partnered with Borderland Collective to bring the installation of Images and Stories from the Archive, a historic walking tour of Marfa. The tour features large-format historic photos that will connect to audio of stories told by former Blackwell School students. Each image includes a label with information to access audio stories from one’s cell phone. The tour will be installed for one year.
Every year, the Blackwell School Alliance features a community art project designed to celebrate and commemorate Marfa’s rich Hispanic culture and heritage in a way that engages all residents and visitors to Marfa. The first year it was a mural.
This year, project leaders Mark Menjivar and Jason Reed of Borderland Collective looked through hundreds of photographs and reviewed dozens of oral history interviews in the Alliance collection.
Reed designed a newspaper with a tour map and additional stories and photos. The newspaper is free and widely available in Marfa.
The Blackwell School served as the school for children of Mexican descent until 1965 when Marfa’s schools were integrated. The Alliance preserves and restores historic resources associated with the Blackwell School and segregated Hispanic education.
Borderland Collective works with schools and communities to address complex issues and histories, diverse perspectives, and meaningful dialogue through creative arts and other forms of expression. Previous projects have featured young Native American women in Albuquerque and young men who ranch in Mexico on the weekends but call Presidio, Texas, home. A project with East Asian and African refugees recently exhibited at Artpace in San Antonio. Reed and Menjivar are professors at Texas State University, and have backgrounds in art, photography, and geography.
