2023 THRIVE Conference: Reclaiming Our Stories – Jan 21

Posted by Haverford College on December 20, 2022

Our second annual THRIVE Conference at Haverford College will be held on Saturday, January 21st, 2023, 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM. This year, the theme is: Reclaiming Our Stories. THRIVE is a campus-wide initiative centered around Truth, Healing, Resiliency, Inclusion, and Equity. Our goal is to bring together people from Haverford, the local Ardmore community, and beyond to lift up voices of groups and individuals who have been marginalized and oppressed, helping us to better understand one another, and ourselves.

Featuring Keynote Speaker – Michelle Angela Ortiz

Michelle Angela Ortiz is a visual artist, skilled muralist, community arts educator, and filmmaker who uses her art as a vehicle to represent people and communities whose histories are often lost or co-opted. Through community arts practices, painting, documentaries, and public art installations, she creates a safe space for dialogue around some of the most profound issues communities and individuals may face. Her work tells stories using richly crafted and emotive imagery to claim and transform spaces into a visual affirmation that reveals the strength and spirit of the community.

For over 20 years, Ortiz has designed and created over 50 large-scale public works nationally and internationally. Since 2008, Ortiz has led art for social change public art projects in Costa Rica & Ecuador and as a Cultural Envoy through the US Embassy in Fiji, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Venezuela, Honduras, and Cuba.

Ortiz is a 2021 Art is Essential Grantee, a 2020 Art For Justice Fund Grantee, a Pew Fellow, Rauschenberg Foundation Artist as Activist Fellow, and a Kennedy Center Citizen Artist National Fellow. In 2016, she received the Americans for the Arts’ Public Art Year in Review Award which honors outstanding public art projects in the nation.

This is a free event, and lunch is provided. Email hc-thrive@haverford.edu with any questions. Once you have registered, you will be emailed to confirm registration and closer to the event date you will receive more details.

Register.