What’s Your Elephant, 1310 Gallery and Niki Lopez Presents:
What We Carry: A Community Art Exhibition & Dialogue
An artist-led exhibition and social practice activation by Niki Lopez and What’s Your Elephant™
August 2026 | 1310 Gallery, Sailboat Bend Artist Lofts | Fort Lauderdale, FL Opening Reception + Fundraiser
August 20, 2026 Exhibition August 20 – September 10, 2026
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
What We Carry: A Community Art Exhibition & Dialogue is an artist-led exhibition and community activation by Niki Lopez in partnership with What’s Your Elephant™, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that uses the arts to address the unspoken.
This August, we are transforming 1310 Gallery at Sailboat Bend Artist Lofts into a space for art, reflection, storytelling, and community care.
Rooted in visual art, social practice, collage-making, and collective dialogue, What We Carry asks: What are we holding? What has been passed down? What have we survived? What are we ready to name, hold differently, or transform together?
The exhibition brings together selected works by Niki Lopez alongside invited artists whose practices engage themes of identity, memory, healing, belonging, resistance, grief, visibility, and care. A personal anchor within the exhibition is Lopez’s developing body of work, What Slows Me Saves Me, which reflects a shift from survival mode toward regulation, trust, stillness, and inner guidance.
This project is not only about trauma or hardship. It is also about what sustains us: beauty, breath, ritual, creativity, community, humor, softness, spirit, memory, and the possibility of being held.
Why Your Support Matters
Your contribution directly supports:
Long-term sustainability for a growing arts movement rooted in healing, dialogue, and community care
Healing-centered art and mental-health programming
Free or low-cost community workshops
Safe spaces for dialogue, mindfulness, and self-expression
The elevation of marginalized and often silenced voices
Local artists, facilitators, and creative practitioners
Together, we are transforming creativity into connection — and connection into community care.
1310 Gallery • Fort Lauderdale, Florida Inside the Sailboat Bend Artist Lofts
Tentative Activations & Community Experiences
Stay tuned for RSVP links for each experience. All events take place at 1310 Gallery unless noted otherwise.
Opening Reception + Fundraiser — Friday, August 20, 2026 A public opening evening featuring visual art, music, community reflection, invited artists, small works for sale, and a focused invitation to support What’s Your Elephant™.
WYE Collage-Making Workshop + Community Chat — Date TBD A signature What’s Your Elephant™ creative wellness experience using collage, writing, visual expression, and facilitated conversation to explore the question: What are we carrying?
Interactive Reflection Installation — Ongoing during exhibition A participatory element inviting visitors to contribute words, reflections, memories, or responses connected to what they carry, what they are releasing, and what they want to see named, protected, or remembered.
Optional Sound / Stillness / Healing Gathering — Date TBD, pending partner support A gentle gallery-based experience incorporating sound, stillness, reflection, and collective care.
What’s Your Elephant™ collaborates with community groups, artists, nonprofits, and corporate organizations.
Founded in 2014 and officially established as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2023, What’s Your Elephant™ is an arts and education nonprofit that uses creativity to address the unspoken.
Through exhibitions, workshops, wellness-centered gatherings, and interactive art experiences, we create spaces for storytelling, mindfulness, emotional wellness, and community connection.
Our work centers mental health, LGBTQ+ identity, social justice, gender equity, cultural storytelling, and collective wellbeing — uplifting marginalized voices and fostering transformation through art.
Since its inception, What’s Your Elephant™ has engaged more than 3,500 individuals across South Florida through exhibitions, workshops, and immersive art activations, including more than 16 mindful mask-making experiences and over a decade of community-centered arts programming led by Niki Lopez.
the importance of the arts/art/creative expression
FEATURED COMMUNITY PARTNERS
TBA
If you would like to join the eList for Niki Lopez to get updates on upcoming programing and other creative happenings: http://eepurl.com/eqUc
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What’s Your Elephant, 1310 Gallery and Niki Lopez Presents:
What We Carry: A Community Art Exhibition & Dialogue
An artist-led exhibition and social practice activation by Niki Lopez and What’s Your Elephant™
August 2026 | 1310 Gallery, Sailboat Bend Artist Lofts | Fort Lauderdale, FL Opening Reception + Fundraiser
August 20, 2026 Exhibition August 20 – September 10, 2026
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
What We Carry: A Community Art Exhibition & Dialogue is an artist-led exhibition and community activation by Niki Lopez in partnership with What’s Your Elephant™, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that uses the arts to address the unspoken.
This August, we are transforming 1310 Gallery at Sailboat Bend Artist Lofts into a space for art, reflection, storytelling, and community care.
Rooted in visual art, social practice, collage-making, and collective dialogue, What We Carry asks: What are we holding? What has been passed down? What have we survived? What are we ready to name, hold differently, or transform together?
The exhibition brings together selected works by Niki Lopez alongside invited artists whose practices engage themes of identity, memory, healing, belonging, resistance, grief, visibility, and care. A personal anchor within the exhibition is Lopez’s developing body of work, What Slows Me Saves Me, which reflects a shift from survival mode toward regulation, trust, stillness, and inner guidance.
This project is not only about trauma or hardship. It is also about what sustains us: beauty, breath, ritual, creativity, community, humor, softness, spirit, memory, and the possibility of being held.
Why Your Support Matters
Your contribution directly supports:
Long-term sustainability for a growing arts movement rooted in healing, dialogue, and community care
Healing-centered art and mental-health programming
Free or low-cost community workshops
Safe spaces for dialogue, mindfulness, and self-expression
The elevation of marginalized and often silenced voices
Local artists, facilitators, and creative practitioners
Together, we are transforming creativity into connection — and connection into community care.
1310 Gallery • Fort Lauderdale, Florida Inside the Sailboat Bend Artist Lofts
Tentative Activations & Community Experiences
Stay tuned for RSVP links for each experience. All events take place at 1310 Gallery unless noted otherwise.
Opening Reception + Fundraiser — Friday, August 20, 2026 A public opening evening featuring visual art, music, community reflection, invited artists, small works for sale, and a focused invitation to support What’s Your Elephant™.
WYE Collage-Making Workshop + Community Chat — Date TBD A signature What’s Your Elephant™ creative wellness experience using collage, writing, visual expression, and facilitated conversation to explore the question: What are we carrying?
Interactive Reflection Installation — Ongoing during exhibition A participatory element inviting visitors to contribute words, reflections, memories, or responses connected to what they carry, what they are releasing, and what they want to see named, protected, or remembered.
Optional Sound / Stillness / Healing Gathering — Date TBD, pending partner support A gentle gallery-based experience incorporating sound, stillness, reflection, and collective care.
What’s Your Elephant™ collaborates with community groups, artists, nonprofits, and corporate organizations.
Founded in 2014 and officially established as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2023, What’s Your Elephant™ is an arts and education nonprofit that uses creativity to address the unspoken.
Through exhibitions, workshops, wellness-centered gatherings, and interactive art experiences, we create spaces for storytelling, mindfulness, emotional wellness, and community connection.
Our work centers mental health, LGBTQ+ identity, social justice, gender equity, cultural storytelling, and collective wellbeing — uplifting marginalized voices and fostering transformation through art.
Since its inception, What’s Your Elephant™ has engaged more than 3,500 individuals across South Florida through exhibitions, workshops, and immersive art activations, including more than 16 mindful mask-making experiences and over a decade of community-centered arts programming led by Niki Lopez.
