Mending Across Borders & Boundaries Educator Guide

Did you use this guide in your classroom? If so, tag SVMoA on social media (@sunvalleymuseum) or email us at education@svmoa.org.

Educator Guide

Mending Across Borders & Boundaries JUL 11- NOV 8, 2025

SVMoA Exhibition Engagement

Mending Across Borders & Boundaries explores the idea of mending in both literal and metaphorical ways

to examine migration, cultural memory, and repair. The exhibition raises questions about what it means to live in two cultures or between them after migration, how migration can represent both rupture and healing, and the possibilities for repairing landscapes and environments damaged by human activity.

Co-curated by Courtney Gilbert and Erin Joyce, the exhibition features six artists: Maria De Los Angeles, Guadalupe Maravilla, Ishi Glinsky, Arleene Correa Valencia, Nazafarin Lotfi, and Elisa Harkins. Their practices include textiles, painting, sculpture, installation, and sound. Among them, Elisa Harkins and Ishi Glinsky are Indigenous artists whose work reflects efforts to preserve traditions disrupted by colonization and reclaim cultural narratives. Together, the artists explore themes such as identity, cultural preservation, community collaboration, environmental repair, and the visibility and invisibility of migrant labor.

Essential Questions Addressed in this SVMoA Exhibition •

How do artists use mending as a metaphor for cultural preservation, repair, and resilience?

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In what ways can migration be an ongoing process rather than a single event?

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How do artists navigate the tension between loss and possibility when living between cultures?

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What role does community play in acts of cultural and environmental repair?

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How might borders—geographic, cultural, and generational—be crossed, imagined, or dismantled through art?

How to Use This Guide: SVMoA encourages educators to actively engage students in the themes of Mending Across Borders & Boundaries. The following artist spotlights, questions, and activities are designed to foster observation, critical thinking, and creative expression. They can be adapted to fit different grade levels and classroom settings.

Did you use this guide in your classroom? If so, tag SVMoA on social media (@sunvalleymuseum) or email us at education@svmoa.org.

Artist Spotlights

Arleene Correa Valencia

Arleene Correa Valencia, Allá / There, 2024. Acrylic, textiles, and thread. Collection of Driek & Michael Zirinsky. Image courtesy of Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco.

Focus: Migration histories, visibility and invisibility, Amate paper traditions.

Key Work: Allá / There (2024) Correa Valencia works on handmade Amate paper, drawing inspiration from the pre-Columbian Codex Boturini, which depicts the Aztec migration from Aztlan to Tenochtitlan. Using textiles, embroidery, paint, and reflective materials, she depicts families at different points in their migration journeys, connecting the histories of Mesoamerica with contemporary migration.

Discussion Points: • How does the use of traditional materials like Amate paper connect past and present migration stories?

• What do the glow-in-the-dark threads and reflective colors suggest about visibility and labor?

• How can historical documents inspire contemporary art?

Did you use this guide in your classroom? If so, tag SVMoA on social media (@sunvalleymuseum) or email us at education@svmoa.org.

Maria De Los Angeles

Maria De Los Angeles, Good Trouble, 2024–2025. American flag, acrylic, bandana, star by Jordan Sahly created with black felt, thread, and glass seed beads, t-shirt, and mixed media canvas. Courtesy of the artist.

Focus: Identity, belonging, community collaboration.

Key Work: Good Trouble (2024–25) De Los Angeles collaborated with local community members to create embroidered and painted fabric patches that she assembled into a large dress sculpture. Also featured in the exhibition are her watercolor monotypes feature winged female figures named after archangels and an Aztec goddess, representing protection and guardianship.

Discussion Points: • What is the significance of community participation in De Los Angeles’s work?

• How do the protective figures in her monotypes reflect themes of migration and belonging?

• In what ways can clothing act as a vessel for storytelling?

Did you use this guide in your classroom? If so, tag SVMoA on social media (@sunvalleymuseum) or email us at education@svmoa.org.

Ishi Glinsky

Ishi Glinsky, While You’re Sleeping, We’re Creeping, 2024. Resin, pigment, aluminum, wood, adhesive, and foam. Courtesy of the artist and P.P.O.W., New York.

Focus: Indigenous traditions, cultural reclamation, and pop culture fusion.

Key Work: While You’re Sleeping, We’re Creeping (2024) Glinsky reinterprets traditional basketry, textiles, and jewelry into contemporary large-scale sculptures.

His use of vibrant colors references natural shifts in materials, linking ancestral craft to present-day expression.

Discussion Points: • How does Glinsky’s blending of traditional and pop culture materials challenge stereotypes about Native art?

• What role does scale play in honoring cultural traditions?

• How can reinterpreting traditional forms be an act of reclamation?

Did you use this guide in your classroom? If so, tag SVMoA on social media (@sunvalleymuseum) or email us at education@svmoa.org.

Elisa Harkins

Elisa Harkins, Hesaketv Meset Likes (The One Who Gives Us Breath Dwells), 2024. Video. Courtesy of the artist.

Focus: Indigenous music and language revitalization, land reclamation, environmental justice.

Key Work: Hesaketv Meset Likes (The One Who Gives Us Breath Dwells) (2024) Harkins combines photography, video, sculpture, and ribbon dresses to address the desecration of Indigenous burial mounds in New Harmony, Indiana. Her work connects these histories with the Land Back movement and climate change activism.

Discussion Points: • How does Harkins use art to address historical harm?

• What connections can be drawn between cultural preservation and environmental repair?

• How might sound and performance deepen the impact of visual art?

Did you use this guide in your classroom? If so, tag SVMoA on social media (@sunvalleymuseum) or email us at education@svmoa.org.

Nazafarin Lotfi

Nazafarin Lotfi, Vanishing Point, 2024. Ink, acrylic, graphite, aqua resin, and papier-mâché. Courtesy of the artist.

Focus: Gardens, mapping, and the mental space of place.

Key Work: Vanishing Point (2024) Lotfi’s drawings and papier mâché sculptures explore walled gardens as spaces for reflection, creation, and memory. Her forms often suggest shrouded bodies or discarded textiles, evoking presence and absence.

Discussion Points: • How do Lotfi’s gardens function as metaphors for safety, memory, or loss?

• What can absence reveal in an artwork?

• How does architecture influence our sense of belonging?

Did you use this guide in your classroom? If so, tag SVMoA on social media (@sunvalleymuseum) or email us at education@svmoa.org.

Guadalupe Maravilla

Guadalupe Maravilla, Fire Snake Border Crossing Retablo, 2002. Oil on tin, cotton, and glue mixture on wood. Courtesy of the artist and P.P.O.W., New York.

Focus: Healing, ritual, and autobiographical storytelling.

Key Work: Fire Snake Border Crossing Retablo (2022) Maravilla’s retablos blend religious folk art with personal migration and healing narratives, incorporating sculptural elements and references to performances and rituals.

Discussion Points: • How does Maravilla combine personal and collective histories?

• What role does ritual play in storytelling?

• How can art function as a tool for healing?

Link to Matterport

Link to Photo Gallery

Did you use this guide in your classroom? If so, tag SVMoA on social media (@sunvalleymuseum) or email us at education@svmoa.org.

If participating in an Exhibition Tour or Classroom Connections, students will re-visit and discuss these works as well as others during the SVMoA tour/visit and project. They will also create their own visual and/or written work that reflects the ideas explored by artists in the exhibition.

Mending Across Borders & Boundaries Before Your Visit Prepare participants to think critically about migration, mending/repair, and cultural memory.

During Your Visit Encourage active engagement through close-looking strategies and group discussions.

General Questions: • What does mending mean to you?

• Can you think of examples where repair is both physical and symbolic?

• How might migration change the way traditions are preserved and shared?

Close-Looking Strategies:

Artist-Specific Prompts: •

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Correa Valencia: How can materials make a story more visible?

De Los Angeles: How might clothing serve as a record of identity?

Glinsky: How can reinterpreting traditional art forms connect the past with the present?

Harkins: How might art repair both cultural and environmental damage?

Lotfi: How do spaces shape memory?

Maravilla: What does it mean to combine personal healing with community healing?

Observation Pairs: Pair students and have one person observe the work for 30 seconds, then describe it to the other person, who adds their own observations.

Think, Feel, Wonder: Think: What do you notice?

Feel: How does this work make you feel?

Wonder: What questions does it raise for you?

Artist-Specific Prompts: •

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Correa Valencia: What do you notice first in her works— material, imagery, or color?

De Los Angeles: How do the details in the garment tell different stories?

Glinsky: How does scale impact your experience of his sculptures?

Harkins: What is the relationship between the history she shares and the visual choices she makes?

Lotfi: How does she use shapes and voids to suggest presence?

Maravilla: How do his retablos blend painting and sculpture?

After Your Visit Encourage students to reflect on their experience and how it has deepened their understanding of migration, mending/repair, and cultural memory.

Reflection Questions: • Which artist’s work connected most to your own experiences or understanding of migration?

• How did this exhibition change the way you think about borders?

• In what ways did the idea of mending appear across different artists’ work?

Did you use this guide in your classroom? If so, tag SVMoA on social media (@sunvalleymuseum) or email us at education@svmoa.org.

Related Activities Engaging in creative activities after exploring Mending Across Borders & Boundaries can deepen understanding and inspire reflection. SVMoA encourages educators to adapt any of the following activities to their classrooms: Migration Patchwork (Inspired by Maria De Los Angeles) Objective: Create a collaborative textile using individual patches that reflect personal stories and experiences of migration.

Prompt: “How can small pieces come together to tell a larger story of movement and identity?”

Light & Shadow (Inspired by Arleene Correa Valencia) Objective: Use reflective and glow-in-the-dark materials to create artwork exploring themes of visibility and invisibility.

Prompt: “How can light and shadow reveal what is seen and unseen in migrant lives?”

Cultural Remix Sculpture (Inspired by Ishi Glinsky) Objective: Combine traditional patterns with contemporary materials to create a sculpture that reflects cultural blending.

Prompt: “How can mixing old and new elements express your own or others’ cultural stories?”

Sound & Story (Inspired by Elisa Harkins) Objective: Record short sound pieces responding to themes of repair, resilience, and cultural memory.

Prompt: “What sounds tell the story of healing and hope across borders?”

Garden Memory Maps (Inspired by Nazafarin Lotfi) Objective: Draw a map of a personal or imagined safe space that symbolizes cultural belonging or environmental repair.

Prompt: “What places feel like safe havens or spaces for healing in your life or community?”

Healing Altars (Inspired by Guadalupe Maravilla) Objective: Assemble objects that tell a story of personal or community healing.

Prompt: “Which objects represent healing for you or your community, and why?”

Through these activities and reflections, Mending Across Borders & Boundaries encourages participants to explore cultural identity, migration, and repair through creative expression.

Did you use this guide in your classroom? If so, tag SVMoA on social media (@sunvalleymuseum) or email us at education@svmoa.org.

Educator Guide to Idaho Content Standards

Mending Across Borders & Boundaries The following Idaho standards align with the themes, activities, and engagement strategies in Mending Across Borders & Boundaries. These standards support critical thinking, creative expression, and cultural understanding across Visual Arts, Social Studies, English Language Arts (ELA), and Science. This exhibition explores the intersections of migration, Indigenous traditions, environmental repair, cultural preservation, and the concept of mending—both physical and metaphorical.

Idaho Content Standards for Visual Arts Grades K-5 •

K-2.VA.1.1 – Use observation and investigation in preparation for making a work of art. Students will explore how artists in the exhibition use materials like textiles, thread, and found objects to tell migration stories and preserve cultural memory.

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K-2.VA.4.2 – Interpret art by identifying subject matter and describing relevant details. Students will identify symbols and materials that relate to themes of identity, repair, and resilience.

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3-5.VA.5.1 – Identify how art is used to inform or change beliefs, values, or behaviors of an individual or society. Students will discuss how mending—both literal and symbolic—can challenge perceptions of borders and migration.

Idaho Content Standards for Visual Arts Grades 6-12 •

6-8.VA.1.1 – Utilize the creative process to design a work of art. Inspired by the Mending Stories: Embroidered Memory Hoops activity, students will create works that address migration, visibility, and resilience.

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6-8.VA.4.1 – Analyze and interpret works of art, and/or how art influences viewers. Students will examine how artists like Arleene Correa Valencia and Maria De Los Angeles incorporate community stories into their art, and how this changes audience perception.

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9-12.VA.1.1 – Develop skills with various materials, methods, and approaches in creating works of art or design. Students will experiment with textiles, found materials, and mixed media to convey personal narratives of repair.

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9-12.VA.2.2 – Make multiple works exploring a meaningful theme, idea, or concept. Students might create a series of works addressing cultural preservation across generations.

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9-12.VA.2.3 – Apply relevant criteria to examine and revise works of art. Students will reflect on how material choices (e.g., reflective thread, natural dyes) shape meaning.

Did you use this guide in your classroom? If so, tag SVMoA on social media (@sunvalleymuseum) or email us at education@svmoa.org.

Idaho Content Standards for Social Studies Grades K-5 •

K.SS.5.1 – Name traditions that came to the United States from other parts of the world. Students will explore how artists preserve and adapt cultural traditions post-migration.

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2.SS.2.2 – Compare how environmental conditions affect living styles and clothing. Students will consider how migration and climate change intersect in the work of Indigenous artists like Elisa Harkins.

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3.SS.1.4 – Describe migration as a continuous process influenced by voluntary and involuntary movement. Students will connect ancient migrations (e.g., Codex Boturini) to modern experiences.

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4.SS.5.1 – Analyze the roles of diverse cultural groups in shaping Idaho’s heritage. Students will discuss how migration stories shape local identity.

Idaho Content Standards for Social Studies Grades 6-12 •

6-12.GEO.1.1 – Explain spatial patterns of Earth’s human systems. Students will consider how migration routes, both historical and present-day, are visualized in contemporary art.

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9-12.US2.1 – Evaluate the effects of migration and colonization on Native American communities.

Students will engage with Indigenous perspectives from artists like Ishi Glinsky and Elisa Harkins.

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9-12.US2.44 – Evaluate how alternative media and technology affect culture and politics. Students will analyze how artists use sound installations, video, and reflective materials to amplify migration narratives.

Idaho Content Standards for English Language Arts (ELA) Grades K-5 •

K.RL.5 – Use evidence from visual and verbal storytelling to demonstrate understanding. Students will connect migration narratives in art with related texts.

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2.RL.7 – Use visual details to understand character, setting, or plot. Students will identify how artists depict protection, resilience, or displacement through imagery.

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3.RL.9 – Compare and contrast how different artists represent similar themes of movement, repair, and belonging.

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5.RL.9 – Compare approaches to similar themes across multiple works, e.g., how De Los Angeles’s textiles and Lotfi’s garden drawings address memory.

Did you use this guide in your classroom? If so, tag SVMoA on social media (@sunvalleymuseum) or email us at education@svmoa.org.

Idaho Content Standards for English Language Arts (ELA) Grades 6-12 •

6.RL.7 – Evaluate arguments in artist statements, identifying claims supported by visual evidence.

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8.RL.9 – Analyze how artists reinterpret historical and cultural traditions (e.g., Maravilla’s retablos or Glinsky’s basketry).

Idaho Content Standards for Science Grades K-5 •

K-ESS-1.1 – Share observations of environmental patterns and their impact on communities.

Students will connect climate-related displacement to art addressing environmental repair.

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3-ESS-2.1 – Evaluate design solutions that reduce environmental harm. Students will explore how art can act as an ecological intervention, as in Harkins’s work on burial mound restoration.

Idaho Content Standards for Science Grades 6-12 •

MS-ESS-2.5 – Construct arguments about how environmental change affects human populations, connecting migration patterns to climate change.

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HS-ESS-3.5 – Analyze data and global models to predict climate impacts on migration and cultural preservation.

Did you use this guide in your classroom? If so, tag SVMoA on social media (@sunvalleymuseum) or email us at education@svmoa.org.

Online Resource for Exploring Art, Images, and Objects Project Zero Thinking Routines Toolbox Link to Exploring Art, Images, and Objects This resource provides various thinking routines to engage students in deep observation and critical thinking about art. It helps students interpret, question, and connect with the artworks in the Uncharted exhibition.

1. Looking Ten Times Two Purpose: Encourages detailed observation and helps students practice noticing multiple aspects of an image, promoting careful and deliberate engagement with art.

Steps: • • •

Look at the image for 30 seconds, letting your eyes wander.

List 10 words or phrases about any aspect of the image.

Repeat the process, adding 10 more words or phrases. Focus the second round of observation on specific features (e.g., colors, shapes, or lines).

Skills Developed: • • •

Observation: Students practice noticing fine details.

Interpretation: The variety of words and phrases helps students interpret what they see from different perspectives.

Questioning: Encourages curiosity as students ask themselves about specific aspects to focus on (e.g., why are certain elements prominent?).

2. Think, Feel, Care Purpose: This routine is aimed at understanding the emotional and personal context of the artwork, fostering empathy and deeper engagement with the content.

Steps: • • •

Think: Ask students, "If you were this person (in the artwork), what would you think?"

Feel: Ask, "How would you feel? Why would you feel this way?"

Care: Ask, "What would be important to you? What would you care about?"

Skills Developed: • • •

Observation: Students focus on interpreting the emotions conveyed by the artwork and its subject matter.

Interpretation: Students interpret emotional and personal aspects of the artwork.

Questioning: Encourages questioning of the subject’s mindset, values, and motivations.

Did you use this guide in your classroom? If so, tag SVMoA on social media (@sunvalleymuseum) or email us at education@svmoa.org.

3. Find, Capture, Explain, Wonder Purpose: Promotes deep reflection and inquiry by guiding students through a step-by-step process of identifying, creating, explaining, and reflecting on the artwork.

Steps: • • • •

FIND: Ask, "How would you describe this artwork in a word or phrase?"

CAPTURE: Students make a drawing of the artwork, paying attention to detail.

EXPLAIN: Ask students to explain how the artwork is complex—considering the multiple elements or ideas involved.

WONDER: Encourage students to ask new questions about the artwork and explore areas they find intriguing.

Skills Developed: • • •

Observation: Through drawing, students practice observing the artwork closely.

Interpretation: Encourages reflection on the complexity of the artwork.

Questioning: Fosters curiosity and deeper exploration, prompting students to generate their own questions.

This Educator Guide was prepared and written by Dianne Sánchez Shumway, August 12, 2025.