What We Carry: A Community Art Exhibition Opening Night
What We Carry: A Community Art Exhibition Opening Night
Info
What We Carry is a Community Art Exhibition & Dialogue exploring what we inherit, what sustains us, and what we are learning to carry differently.
What We Carry: A Community Art Exhibition & Dialogue
Presented by What’s Your Elephant™
Curated and produced by Niki Lopez
Opening Reception: Friday, August 21, 2026 | 6–10 PM
Exhibition Dates: August 21–September 10, 2026
Location: 1310 Gallery | Sailboat Bend Artist Lofts | Fort Lauderdale, FL
Admission: Free + Open to the Public
What We Carry is an artist-led exhibition and social practice activation presented by What’s Your Elephant™, a 501(c)(3) arts and education nonprofit that uses art and facilitated dialogue to address what often goes unspoken.
Bringing together 35 exhibiting artists selected from nearly 200 works submitted for consideration, What We Carry explores the emotional, cultural, ancestral, political, and personal weight we hold. Through painting, photography, mixed media, fiber, sculpture, assemblage, installation, performance, digital art, generative AI image-making, and experimental forms, the exhibition engages questions of identity, memory, grief, belonging, ancestry, resistance, care, survival, and transformation.
This exhibition is not only about hardship. It is also about what sustains us: beauty, breath, ritual, creativity, community, humor, softness, spirit, memory, and the possibility of being held.
As both an exhibition and social practice container, What We Carry invites audiences to consider:
- What are we carrying?
- What has been passed down?
- What have we survived?
- What are we ready to name, release, hold differently, or transform together?
The opening reception will include visual art, music, community reflection, exhibiting artists, and space to gather and connect. Public programming continues throughout the exhibition with a Community Drum Workshop with Feminafrika on August 30, a WYE Collage-Making Workshop + Community Chat on September 5, an ongoing Interactive Reflection Installation, and a Closing Reflection on September 10. Check this page and whatsyourelephant.org/whatwecarry for updated program details.
Exhibiting Artists
AJ Grossman, Carla Golembe, Carlisa McNee, Carlos Eduardo Plaza, Cathleen Dean, Christina Marie Reddick, Courtney Einhorn, Crystal Galindo, Damaris Ferrer, DJ-Laoshi, Elijah Gabriel Ramos, Felicia Brooks, Joanne Hampstead, Kay Manin!, Kristina Tokár, Lorna Lesperance, Louis Davis, Macarena Zilveti, Melanie Oliva, Micheal Anthony Clark, Michel Perez Sosa, Mila Hajjar, Moisés Acebedo, Natalya Kochak, Nicole Gómez, Niki Lopez, Norha Tamayo, Rosa Henriquez, Sheila Alexander, Sophie Wong, Stephanie McMillan, Tina Wright, Tony Brown, Vita Litvak, & Zeb.
Artist Perspectives
What We Carry brings together artists speaking from their own lived experiences, histories, identities, and points of view. The perspectives expressed in individual works belong to the artists and do not necessarily represent those of What’s Your Elephant™, curator/producer Niki Lopez, 1310 Gallery, or exhibition partners. Making space for a work does not mean endorsing every viewpoint it expresses. It means making room for art, reflection, dialogue, and the complexity of what people carry.
Curatorial Vision
What We Carry grows out of Niki Lopez’s long-standing practice as an artist, curator, and social practitioner using art as a bridge for reflection, dialogue, healing, and community connection.
The exhibition is shaped by questions that have moved through Lopez’s work for years: What do we hold in the body? What do we inherit? What remains unnamed? What helps us survive, soften, remember, release, and transform?
What We Carry is a curated community art exhibition that brings multiple artists and perspectives into conversation around memory, identity, grief, care, belonging, resistance, ancestry, restoration, and transformation.
More info on What We Carry:
whatsyourelephant.org/whatwecarry
Activations & Community Experiences
- Friday, August 21, 2026 | 6–10 PM – Opening reception with artists, community, music + light bites
- Sunday, August 30, 2026 | 2–4 PM – Community Drum Workshop with Feminafrika
- Saturday, September 5, 2026 | Time TBD – WYE Collage-Making Workshop + Community Chat
- Thursday, September 10, 2026 | 7–9 PM – Closing Reflection: Art, Movement & Community, featuring a performance by Movement artist Damaris Ferrer at 8 PM
Support What We Carry
Current support for What We Carry includes contributions from Sue Wilder, community donors through Givebutter, and in-kind production, design, communications, and curatorial support from Niki Lopez Creative.
Your donation helps support exhibition installation, signage, printing, supplies, documentation, artist/program support, community engagement, and the sustainability of What’s Your Elephant™. Support for this exhibition helps keep the work accessible to the public while honoring the labor required to produce meaningful community-centered art experiences.
Donate / sponsor / share:
https://givebutter.com/wye_whatwecarry
About the Curator
Niki Lopez is an award-winning Afro-Latina interdisciplinary artist, curator, cultural producer, and social practitioner based in South Florida. Since 2008, she has curated and produced community-centered exhibitions and arts experiences at 1310 Gallery and throughout South Florida, using art as a bridge for dialogue, healing, visibility, and collective care.
Through her creative practice and nonprofit work, Lopez creates spaces where personal story, cultural memory, social issues, and creative expression can meet in meaningful ways.
About What’s Your Elephant™
What’s Your Elephant is a 501(c)(3) arts and education nonprofit that uses art and facilitated dialogue to address what often goes unspoken. Founded as a community movement in 2013 and incorporated as a nonprofit in 2023, WYE creates culturally responsive spaces for reflection, storytelling, creative expression, and community connection. Since its inception, WYE has engaged more than 3,500 people through exhibitions, workshops, conversations, and immersive art experiences across South Florida.
