The Brownsville Museum of Fine Art in partnership with BiG Heroes, Inc. recently opened their exhibit “In The Making” where every artist is a young adult who lives with a disability.
The exhibit will run until March and Martha Gonzalez, founder and president of Big Heroes, said that the artists despite any disability they may have, their incredible abilities shine through with each of the pieces of art that they all put their special touches on.
“These are very special and unique pieces made by wonderful, wonderful individuals,” she said. “The partnership and the opportunity that we have through the Museum of Fine Art is such that we can make it available to many, many more community members who did not know about Big Heroes.”
The art pieces are for sale and range from paintings, to colorful jewelry to wreaths. The proceedings will go to fund student incentives, including education and community outings.
Believe in God’s (BiG) Heroes is a God-centered non-profit organization which seeks to provide continued educational opportunities to young adults with intellectual disabilities post high school that seek employment, the official website reads.
They strive to train and empower our members to produce and market unique handcrafted items to give back to their program and gain incentives. At the center, and now online due to COVID-19, these young adults also gain from first hand presentations by community professionals that provide their expertise for life skills and health topics for healthy living.
“Our students have been working very hard alongside our teachers. Originally, it did take some extra work in reinforcing, but now the students can, pretty much independently, receive their materials and just take it and run with it,” Gonzalez said.
“It is a very interesting concept to know that our students with different abilities can also make things happen, artwork included. The pieces that are for sale are unique pieces, so they are going to be one of a kind. When you buy one there’s no way that we can turn around and make another one just like it. It’s not a cookie cutter type of art, each and every time we are surprised with something even more beautiful.”
Gonzalez said students have come a long way and that she is thankful with the Museum of Fine Art for collaborating to help each other.
“They’ve come a long way. If any of our supporters has any of our pieces from when we first started, we’ve come a long way. They’ve evolved and changed so much and we are very happy that the students have been doing so well,” she said.
“We have been at our little location in Boca Chica for a little over three years now and it takes partnering with organizations such as the Museum of Fine Art to really get the word out and we are very blessed to be working alongside with Deyanira.”
Deyanira Ramirez, executive director at the museum, said it is important for organizations to collaborate and help each other.
“We are very proud to collaborate with Big Heroes for this exhibit,” she said.
“The artists for this exhibit are young adults with a disability, which does not limit them to be creative, to paint, to express their feelings and what they are living through artwork.”
Ramirez said it is important to support the local arts and that she invites the community to visit the museum.
“Supporting the art is very important and we are very thankful with our community that trusts the museum and feel safe to come visit,” she said.
“Everything we have on exhibit is for the community but we want to emphasize this new exhibit because it shows that there are no limits. We can do whatever we set our minds to and like people say, the sky is the limit.”
