Immigrantes Bienvenidos (Immigrants Welcome)

This installation is part of Indy Art & Seek, a project by the Arts Council of Indianapolis and Keep Indianapolis Beautiful to pair artists and communities to create site-specific art that encourages neighborhood residents to see their surroundings in new ways.

Working with the Christian Park neighborhood, and in light of current tense policies which target immigrant communities, the artist wanted to create a space that encourages Latinx neighbors to feel welcomed and safe to congregate in public. She was also inspired by her own Mexican heritage and her experience living on the east side and visiting Christian Park with her children. The imagery seen here includes Monarch butterflies, their own seasonal and generational migrations to and from Mexico serving as a symbol of the migratory patterns of immigrants seeking a new life in the United States. The mural on the picnic benches outside echoes elements of the paper sculpture inside the park building.

Beatriz Vasquez is a graduate of the Herron School of Art & Design, and is a self-taught papel picado artist. Her compositions often center on issues of the Mexican immigrant experience and personal and family memory.