Luminary Lens

Programs at the Gardner

We’re excited to announce the launch of Luminary Lens, a digital series featuring Neighborhood Salon Luminary artists bringing fresh perspectives to the Gardner Museum’s historic collection through commissioned new works.

Currently Available

La Llorona: The Art of Resilience Through Loss and Grief

by Veronica Robles

Veronica Robles is a Mexican singer-musician and founder of Boston's First Female Mariachi. Experience her incredible musicianship in this moving response to Gardner’s personal story of grief & rebuilding.

Video by La Gringa Loca Productions. Director: Paloma Valenzuela

Veronica Robles is a Mariachi singer by trade, but has become a cultural icon for Latinos in Boston. She has effectively utilized the power of arts and culture to bring the community together by raising awareness on the importance of diversity and she has empowered youth by employing them and teaching them about their roots and culture.

Robles is Co-founder and Director of the Veronica Robles Cultural Center, a non-profit organization that supports community action and economic growth in East Boston, offering Latin American arts and culture programs while also providing jobs for youth.

 

Watch La Llorona in its entirety:

 

La Llorona by Veronica Robles

Past Luminary Lens Videos

Video by La Gringa Loca Productions. Director: Paloma Valenzuela

James Adius Pierre is a passionate arts advocate and the founder of the Adius Arts Initiative.

Special Thanks:

  • Marvin L. Venay
  • Wynndell Bishop
  • Darryl's Corner Bar & Kitchen

Video by La Gringa Loca Productions and Paloma Valenzuela. Director: John Oluwole Adekoje

Keith Mascoll is an actor whose unique and innovative style of Black storytelling about trauma creates spaces for male healing through art. Keith is founder of the Triggered Project and Co-host of The Living a Triggered Life Podcast.

We invite you to experience a monologue written and performed by Keith in response to the 17th-century empty gilded frame in the Gardner's Dutch Room. The golden frame held the stolen Rembrandt painting, Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee.

Featuring special guest cinematography by John Oluwole ADEkoje.

Video by La Gringa Loca Productions. Director: Paloma Valenzuela.

Eli “Lady” Pabon-Szebeda is a multi-talented dancer, singer, lyricist, and percussionist born and raised in Boston to a Puerto Rican family of performers and educators. Follow her journey in creating SilenceBreakers, a commissioned piece of music and dance in three movements responding to the painting The Story of Lucretia by Botticelli. Eli investigates this painting's evocative story, exploring themes of violence against women and ongoing work to center women's stories and voices today. Featuring special guest David Szebeda "Sound Chalice".

 

Watch SilenceBreakers in its entirety:

 

SilenceBreakers by Eli Pabon

SilenceBreakers

00:00 / 9:49

Video by La Gringa Loca Productions. Director: Paloma Valenzuela.

Birth, Death, and Ancestral Healing Arts Practitioner Luana Morales is devoted to the reclamation of our ancestral practices to restore all of us to wholeness and to experience liberation in these bodies and this lifetime. Follow her journey in creating Spirit of the Earth Carry Me Home, a project in response to the Gardner Museum’s Farnese Sarcophagus.

Video by La Gringa Loca Productions. Director: Paloma Valenzuela.

Acclaimed Nepali artist Sneha "Imagine" Shrestha paints mindful mantras in her native language and meshes the aesthetics of Sanskrit scriptures with graffiti influences. Follow her journey in creating Calling The Earth to Witness, a commissioned sculptural work for the Gardner’s Bertucci Education Studio. Imagine found inspiration in the sacred, the regal, and the cherished.

Video by La Gringa Loca Productions. Director: Paloma Valenzuela.

Will Dailey is an acclaimed independent recording and performing artist and artist advocate. His sound has been described as having a rich vintage vibe while having a firm appreciation of craft and big hooks.

Battersea Reach

00:00 / 6:26

Neighborhood Salon Luminaries

The Neighborhood Salon is a gathering of select local artists and cultural luminaries that fosters an active exchange of ideas between Boston's most innovative and thoughtful creatives, fostering collaborations and artistic networks while shaping Gardner Museum programming.

 

The Neighborhood Salon is supported in part by the Anne Hawley Fund for Programs, the Barr Foundation ArtsAmplified Initiative, and the Polly Thayer Starr Charitable Trust. 

 

These programs are funded in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which is supported by the state of Massachusetts and the National Endowment for the Arts.