FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Melissa Stevens-Briceño,
Community Development Manager
995-1860 ofc. 577-3373 cell
melissa@aloveoflearning.org


El Otro Lado—The Other Side:
The Stories that Connect Us
Art/ Audio Installation Opening

“Even if we have a different color of our skin we are still humans, even if we
speak different languages, we still have a heart, we still have mind, we still
have, you know what everybody has. We are the same. We are the same.”

Sister Sylvia Gomez, former Santa Fe resident from
Mexico City, participant in the El Otro Lado Project

Sunday, June 28, 2009, Santa Fe, New Mexico: El Otro Lado Project: The Other Side:
The Stories that Connect Us is a collaborative public arts project of the Academy for the
Love of Learning that engages the creative process to illuminate issues of migration, human
dignity, community inclusion and finding one’s sense of place and home in Santa Fe, New
Mexico.

The El Otro Lado Project provides the opportunity for a community-wide activation of the
perennial and profound inquiry into, “Who am I?” and, “What is my place in the community?”
The project inspires community members to keep alive their flame of creativity in an exploration
of self and personal journey, through the mediums of artwork and story-telling, and as such is
part of the Academy for the Love of Learning’s larger intent to activate a culture of learning
through which new forms of education, leadership and organizational practice emerge and
thrive.

The El Otro Lado Project began in Spring 2008 as a pilot of the Academy for the Love of
Learning, the City of Santa Fe Arts Commission and the Santa Fe Art Institute. Chrissie Orr is
the project director and conceptualized and directed this project. Community-based
organizations, art institutions, educational entities and positive community mentors supported
the design of the workshops, which are innovative, inclusive, and culturally sensitive. An
intensive series of workshops have been conducted throughout the year with private and public
school students and families who are intergenerational, cross-cultural members of the
community of Santa Fe.

Beginning June 28 the Academy will launch a citywide community art installation based
on the work of this project with sites crossing Santa Fe. The installation art documenting
participants’ stories will be displayed in public places around the city in groups of 2 or 3.

The images, printed on 4’ x 6’ weatherproof aluminum panels, will be held upright and in place
by an independently standing, and beautifully constructed, steel frame. Each panel will have
phone number access to an audio journal of each participant’s journey story in Spanish and
English. In addition you will be able to access the story online at www.aloveoflearning.org.






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When the installations come down from the city sites in October, they will then move to their year-
round home at the Academy’s new educational center at the edge of Santa Fe in Seton Village. Our
new home, which will be a model of green construction and sustainability, will be dedicated to the re-
imagination of learning and education in New Mexico and across the country.

For additional information about the project or to learn more about the Academy for the Love of
Learning please visit www.aloveoflearning.org click El Otro Lado: The Stories that Connect Us.

As an art historian and a member of Santa Fe's Art in Public Places advisory committee, I am very
pleased to endorse the El Otro Lado project. I look forward to its placement within our community, as
I find that it addresses some of our misguided beliefs about who truly "belongs" here and who might
not, including undocumented workers and newly arrived residents. Orr's work is thoughtful, inspiring,
and aesthetically arresting: perfect for a public installation.

--Kathryn Davis, Art Historian

Being part of this project created the opportunity for me to look at my physical, emotional and
spiritual origins with a non-critical eye. It inspired me to start working on a project to write my
autobiography to share with my family and friends. And finally it reminded me that Fronteras or
Borders are just a figment of our imagination. Our connection with Life and one another run way
deeper than a simple border.

--Carlos Mora, Santa Fe resident from the Dominican Republic and participant in the El Otro
Lado project


The mission of the Academy for the Love of Learning is to awaken, enliven, nurture and
sustain the natural love of learning in people of all ages. We seek to encourage and cultivate
the powers of critical thought, imagination, curiosity, innate sense of purpose, wonder and
inspiration, and an ongoing awakening of the heart.


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1012 Marquez Place, Suite 308A, Santa Fe, NM 87505  505-995-1860 www.aloveoflearning.org