With support from the California Arts Council, the MUSEUM OF SOCIAL JUSTICE will collaborate with artist Oscar Magallanes to develop a multidisciplinary exhibition focused on the lived experiences of Indigenous youth from southern Mexico and Central America who have been separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border. The project will include a gallery exhibition, a short documentary film, and a public art or digital mural component. Grounded in trauma-informed collaboration, the work will center youth voices, many of whom speak K’iche’ and Mam, and reflect their cultural identities and resilience. In partnership with advocacy and legal organizations, and with guidance from a trauma-informed mental health advisor in designing healing-centered workshop components, the project will serve as both testimony and cultural preservation, using art to inform and honor communities navigating forced migration and systemic erasure.
As part of its permanent collection, the Museum showcases the work of women missionaries who established schools, medical clinics, and other services for refugees of the Mexican revolution in the early 1900’s, including the first integrated drinking fountain in Los Angeles from circa 1917. Through a collaboration with the Bradley Center at Cal State University, Northridge the museum was able to digitize over 2,000 photographs documenting life in Los Angeles for poor Latinos beginning in 1899. The museum has worked with a variety of curators to plan exhibitions on diverse social justice themes, including the Civil Rights Movement, immigration, and East L.A. student activism. In 2017, the Museum began partnering with artists from under-served communities to produce artistic responses to our major exhibitions. The museum invests in young adult leadership to act as docents, support our media needs, research our archives, develop educational components for upcoming exhibitions, etc.

