Last fall, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts invited community members to submit proposals for a site-specific, participatory installation in ACME Lab. After a rigorous review process, the UMFA selected teaching artist Sydney Porter Williams to create our newest ACME Lab: Interwoven: Social Transformation Through Art and Community. Collaboratively envisioned with students from Sydney’s University of Utah course, Art for Critical Consciousness — this exhibition deepens our understanding of shared humanity by highlighting our intersecting identities and diverse experiences. 

 Arleene Correa Valencia is an emerging contemporary artist interested in migration, family, and the visibility/invisibility of undocumented people in the United States. Born in Michoacán, Mexico, Correa Valencia fled with her family to the United States at age three and grew up in Napa Valley. The prolonged experience of separation when her father left to find work made a profound impact on Correa Valencia’s childhood and outlook. Her artistic practice continues to explore the grief, anxieties, and fears of repeated separation alongside the joys of reunited life together.