Drawn Together Gallery at the HTC

This gallery showcases work by Mariah-Rose Marie & Shaina Lu.

Presented by the Boston University Office of the Arts in collaboration with the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground. Drawn Together explores how visual storytelling becomes a powerful vessel for cultural memory, resistance, and care. Centering food, heritage, and identity, the featured works highlight how everyday practices like cooking, illustrating and storytelling can preserve histories, celebrate community, and push back against erasure.

Illustrations and narratives in the exhibitoin reflect the intimate and political roles that food and memory play in shaping who we are. Whether passed down through handwritten recipes or reimagined in visual art, these expressions offer glimpses into how traditions endure across borders, generations, and kitchen tables.

The art gallery features art from a 2- day artists residency Nov. 12 through the 13th.

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Afro-Indo-American: Cooking Kunde from Scratch

Wednesday, November 12, 2025 | 1 – 2:30pm
Demonstration Room 124, 808 Commonwealth Ave.

Recipes for Resistance Zine Workshop w/ Mariah-Rose Marie

Wednesday, November 12, 2025 | 5 – 7pm

HTC Commons (Room 205), 808 Commonwealth Ave.

Hot-Pot-Luck Collage Workshop with Shaina Lu

Thursday, November 13, 2025 | 1 – 3pm
HTC Commons (Room 205), 808 Commonwealth Ave.

Drawn Together Artist Panel with Mariah-Rose, Shaina Lu, and Joel Gill

Thursday, November 13, 2025 | 5:30 – 7pm
HTC Commons (Room 205), 808 Commonwealth Ave.

Presented by the Boston University Office for the Arts in collaboration with the BU College of Fine Arts’ Visual Narrative program, BU Food Studies Program, and the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground, this two-day residency explores the power of using visual narrative as a medium to share and pass down culture, food, and recipes as acts of preservation, resistance, and community care, featuring guest artists Mariah-Rose Marie and Shaina Lu, both illustrators and authors whose work centers food, heritage, and resistance. This residency invites the BU community to engage through interactive workshops, a cooking demonstration, class visits, and an artist panel.

The themes reflect how everyday practices, such as cooking and storytelling, can become powerful tools for cultural preservation. Through visual narratives and shared meals, the residency showcases how artists and communities alike can utilize creative expression to resist erasure and nourish both individual and collective well-being. For BU’s diverse and international student population, these themes resonate deeply, acknowledging the many ways culture is carried, shared, and defended across borders, generations, and kitchen tables.