2018 What's Your Elephant' Art exhibit & performance opening night

What’s Your Elephant Art Exhibit to Opens with Compelling Art and Performances

Opening Night + Performance: Saturday, August 18th | 1310 Gallery | 6pm-10pm

Artist Niki Lopez will be curating her 10th Annual Art Show at Fort Lauderdale’s 1310 Gallery. She was recently featured on the People Magazine Investigates: Cults series on the Investigation Discovery channel. There, Lopez shared her story of being raised in an abusive cult that thrived on secrecy, until she and other survivors broke their silence, which ultimately brought down the cult and its leader.

This experience inspired her to create a space in her art to share her "elephant" (an obvious truth that is being ignored or otherwise unaddressed) and to passionately provide opportunities for others to do the same. What’s Your Elephant uses a combination of art exhibits, interactive installations, and workshops to provoke and facilitate discussions unveiling issues like gender, discrimination, and abuse.

Visual Artists:

• Adewale Adenle
• Artists for Black Lives Matter #a4blm
• Cathleen Dean
• Cindy Shaw
• Jose Silva
• Mary Catello
• Naomi Lauren Ross
• Natalya Kochak - Niki Lopez
• Rene Gordon
• Robbi Potter
• Stonewall National Museum & Archives (COMMUNITY PARTNER
• Susan Buzzi
• Tabatha Mudra
• Talora Michaels
• Teepop
• Tina La Porta
• Victoria Sheridan
• #whatsyourelephant workshop artwork
• Wilbert Simpson

Attendees are invited to participate with an interactive installation to share their “elephant.” Lopez will also host a "What’s Your Elephant” workshop at the location of this exhibition’s community partner - Stonewall National Museum & Archives on Thursday, August 2, 2018.Participants will use creative arts in a safe space to reveal individual or societal “elephants” impacting their lives. “It’s about acknowledging it [the elephant] owning it, so that it doesn’t define you,” says Lopez.

Admission is free and open to the public. This exhibition presents materials of a sensitive nature. Viewer discretion is advised.

Opening night will be hosted by poet Rachel 'Flow Diva' Finely and include performances byInez Barlatier,Venus Rising, Mystic Mantra Band, May Reign, Dillon, Morgyn Danae, G. Winston James, Charnell Richards and Chelsea Ward. Music DJ Bumi.

Sponsors: AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Niki Lopez Creative, 1310 Bandits Collective, Very GTV, Panku Literary and Arts Magazine, TBA, and the 1310 Gallery.

For more info on the arts project: http://nikiartstudio.com/whats-your-elephant/

Funding for this project is provided in part by the Broward County Board of County Commissioners as recommended by the Broward Cultural Council and from the Community Foundation of Broward: Fonda, and H. Wayne Huizenga, Jr. Family Trust Fund, Gary J. Scotto Fun and Mary and Alex Mackenzie Community Impact Fund

Sponsor:

AIDS Healthcare Foundation

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2018 Community Partner:

Stonewall National Museum & Archives: Stonewall, our 2018 Community Partner, is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(3) that promotes understanding through preserving and sharing the proud culture of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their significant role in society.

Special thanks to:

The the Strawbridge Family and all who contributed to the Facebook fundraiser campaign!

Exhibition: August 18 - September 29th, 2018

Dates:

• August 2 What’s Your Elephant workshop at Stonewall National Museum & Archives
• August 18 What’s Your Elephant - Opening night & performance
• Sept 6Ignite Women South Florida / 1310 Bandits Short FIlm Screening
• Sept 18Artists Co-Lab Music Mixer
• Sept 29Artists Talk / Open Mic Closing