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<div class="column"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-2432 size-large" src="http://tallerpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Images-of-40-Slider-1024x426.jpg" alt="Images of Identity : Taller Puertorriqueño 1974 - 2014" width="1024" height="426" /></div>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><b>November 7 - January 10, 2015</b></p>
<img class="alignleft wp-image-2552 " src="http://tallerpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Taller-Founders-300x196.jpg" alt="Taller Founders" width="233" height="152" />The exhibition begins before Taller’s creation in 1974, when heightened postwar migration and immigration of Latinos to Philadelphia resulted in ethnic tensions. After World War II, Philadelphia’s Puerto Rican population grew to the third largest in the country. This exhibition shows how Taller’s founders used art and cultural production as instruments for ethnic pride and a means of self-sufficiency. Printmaking was not only an art form to be maintained but also a trade that could be capitalized on. The Julia de Burgos bookstore ( as it was known then) not only promoted and sold culturally specific items but was also an introduction to running a business. Taller became a center for artists and intellectuals to gather, and a place for community investigation and documentation, as “Batiendo la Olla”, the oral history project, showed.

As Taller’s members changed and its role in the area expanded, the programs began to include more and more youth<a href="http://tallerpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Images-Timeline.jpeg"><img class="alignright wp-image-2560 size-medium" src="http://tallerpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Images-Timeline-55x300.jpeg" alt="Images Timeline" width="55" height="300" /></a> activities. It was through meeting their needs that Taller best fulfilled its mission to promote Puerto Rican and Latino culture and understanding. Art was a doorway leading to self-expression and personal growth.

With this perspective, an artist’s work, no matter how abstract or esoteric, is never separate from the community or culture to which it belongs. Art is part of a broader conversation that references history, language, privilege and experience. And artists, as members of a community, refer to this conversation - whether consciously or not. Through the public display of their work the artist speaks to their community and the public, and in so doing echoes their people’s aspirations by demanding acknowledgement .

The United States has been called a melting pot because of the ethnic and racial diversity of its population. Taller Puertorriqueño, by calling attention to cultural distinctions and experiences, both challenges this notion and proves it true: Integration matters, but not at the cost of one’s respect.

For further information or images, please contact Rafael Damast @ 215-426-3311 or rdamast@tallerpr.org

Download the press release <a title="Press Release" href="http://tallerpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Press-Release-images-of-identity1.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>.

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