Workshop: Migration Stories

with Ana Treviño and Mark Menjívar

Migration Stories is an oral history project focusing on personal narratives of how we arrived to where we are now. We all have a migration story, some are closer than others. Ana Treviño and Mark Menjivar will introduce social practice and filmmaking methodologies to engage with the themes of migration and place. Workshop participants will learn more about Migration Stories and be invited to explore their own family history through personal relics and their connection to Austin’s indigenous land and communities. Together, we will use documentary and experimental filmmaking techniques to create a video piece of our own migration stories to be shared at the end of this workshop at Laguna Gloria.

This course is inspired by the Fall 2023 exhibition THIS LAND opening at The Contemporary Austin – Jones Center on Sept 28 (Thurs). Artists included in THIS LAND explore topics of place, migration, and displacement.

Participants don’t need buy supplies in advance but will need to bring a personal family object/relic with them that has traveled in some way.

Capacity is limited, advance registration is encouraged.

About the instructors

Mark Menjívar is a San Antonio based artist and Associate Professor in the School of Art and Design at Texas State University. His art practice primarily consists of creating participatory projects while being rooted in photography, oral history, archives, and social action. He attended McLennan Community College, holds a BA in Social Work from Baylor University and an MFA in Social Practice from Portland State University.

Ana Treviño is an Austin based artist and Lecturer in the School of Art and Design at Texas State University. Her practice bends the rules of filmmaking and is informed by cultural histories. She uses a feminist lens to think about the concept of borders, whether visible, invisible, or blurred. Her connection to the U.S./Mexico border deeply influences her work and the stories she engages with. Through video installation and performance, she explores how she can reinvent subjugated narratives.