JAVA Nov 19

Medio Completo artist: Gloria, Nuvia
Huhugam Heritage Center’s: Monica King
Like water in the desert, art has the
powerful ability to bring people together.
In contemporary Phoenix, all too often,
community-based art is reduced to
branding and marketing efforts, and authenticity
can quickly be lost. This city does, however,
continue to bring people together beyond property
and product. One recent powerful example of this
is Vesich eth ve:m, a creative team that arose from
the Water Public Art Challenge.
On May 30, 2018, the Arizona Community Foundation
launched the Challenge – its third philanthropic
competition “aimed at creating the Arizona of
tomorrow.” Funds were distributed to collaborative
projects that delved into the “Hohokam” legacy,
canal system, and history of water use in the Valley.
The majority of winning teams will be exhibiting
their work on November 16 at Scottsdale’s Canal
Convergence, the Mesa Arts Center, and the Rio
Salado Audubon Center (with the exception of
Pueblo Grande Museum’s exhibition, which was
held on October 20).
The competition called for “collaborative temporary
public art projects that build connectivity between
cultures through creative expression.” Audubon
Arizona’s executive director, Sonia Perillo, saw it as
an opportunity to link water and community with the
organization’s mission to protect birds and habitats.
Birds, after all, need water.
Audubon Arizona is one of many nonprofits in
South Phoenix looking for ways to connect with
its community. Public meetings on the South
Central light rail extension brought together many
stakeholders, including Perillo and Sam Gomez of the
Sagrado Galleria (located on south Central Ave.), and
they began to discuss the possibility of collaboration.
Meanwhile, a separate group was coalescing around
Gomez. Diana Calderon, Gloria Martinez-Granados,
Reggie Casillas, Nuvia Enriquez, and Ayo Sinplaneta
were all looking to combine their individual artistic
practices to form a collaborative. Soon enough,
Edgar Fernandez and Martin Moreno joined the
conversation, along with Gomez. Together they
formed the artist group Medio Completo. Gomez
then bridged Medio Completo with Audubon Arizona
through the idea of the water competition.
Perillo was simultaneously reaching out to members
of the Gila River Indian Community, which is
composed of two tribes – the Akimel O’odham
and the Pee Posh. In the past, tribal members had
frequented the Rio Salado Audubon Center to collect
materials for basket weaving.
The Huhugam Heritage Center was established to
ensure that the Gila River tribes continue to flourish
for generations. The center’s education curator,
Monica King, says, “We want it for our community,
but we also want to share with the public.”
King connected with Perillo and signed on to the
competition, inviting Heritage Center staff and artists
from the community, including Joyce Hughes, Tim
Terry Jr., and Aaron Sabori to contribute their vision
and direction to the project.
Together Audubon Arizona, the Huhugam Heritage
Center, and Medio Completo formed a team called
Vesich eth ve:m, which translates to “all of us
together.” Team members got together for the first
time at the Rio Salado Audubon Center over a year
ago to begin the application process, and since
then have forged a path to share the results of their
collaboration on November 16.
While all are interdisciplinary artists, Calderon and
Martinez-Granados both currently work primarily