Presidio
Seven schoolchildren in Presidio were named winners of the global drawing contest hosted by the Mexican Consulate. Their drawings will be exhibited throughout Presidio through the end of February, and visitors are encouraged to participate in a scavenger hunt to find all the winners. Fort Leaton will be hosting a special one-day exhibition of the drawings on February 14, which is free to the public.
As visitors seek out all seven exhibitions throughout town, the Mexican Consulate is giving kids and adults an art “passport” that will be stamped at each location. Once a visitor has all seven stamps and has identified all seven winning images, they can turn it into the Mexican Consulate for a prize.
The drawings come from children all over the world—at the Presidio ISD administration building, winning images came from Germany, Peru, Mexico and Bolivia, in addition to Presidio. Over 1,000 children submitted drawings around the theme of “This is My Mexico: Pueblos y Barrios Magicos,” with 50 selected as winners. As the largest number of winners came from Presidio, the consulate was offered the chance to showcase the images. The consul, Gamaliel Bustillos Munoz, extended the offer to the wider community.
“The artworks that you are invited to discover at the gallery share a sense of wonder, infinite hope, and reverie,” says Adele Jancovici, the owner of The Dreamers Gallery, which is hosting seven of the images. She notes that the colorful images contain a deeply felt sense of place.
The midday opening exhibition on February 2 was held at the Presidio ISD building, and attended by the mayor, the Mexican consul, the school superintendent, three art teachers, and one of the winners. Sara Sanchez, a current sixth grader, completed her drawing of a “pueblos magicos” when she was in fourth grade. She says that she still loves to draw, and plans to enter in the next contest.
“I love working with the kids because they don’t have any preconceptions,” says Brenda Munoz, the elementary school art teacher. She taught all seven winners, three of which are now in middle school. When the contest was announced, she explained the theme and led the students in thinking about how it could be interpreted. After that, she let them run with it.
“They were excited about the prizes, that it would be an exhibit and travel,” she says, noting that there was also healthy competition within the class for who could make the best drawing.
Ms. Munoz has been an art teacher with the district for three years, teaching nearly 450 elementary students after leaving a career as a graphic designer in Mexico City. Although she is a relatively new teacher, she is a veteran of the drawing contest. She used to help facilitate it when she worked at the El Paso consulate. Her husband is the current consul in Presidio.
The success of the drawing contest is one of several art partnerships with the consulate. Ms. Munoz and her art classes built a collaborative art installation for Dias de Los Muertos last year, which was displayed at the consulate.
The contemporary interpretation of an ofrenda (offering) was made with paper origami fortune tellers elaborately constructed to sway, and accompanied by ceramic fruit. When The Dreamers Gallery hosted a movie night with the consulate in late October, they also hosted a surprise display of the ofrenda.