{"id":38756,"date":"2022-08-25T02:29:26","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T08:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/visual-and-literary-art-piece-pays-homage-to-family-at-cortez-cultural-center\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:46:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:46:18","slug":"visual-and-literary-art-piece-pays-homage-to-family-at-cortez-cultural-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/visual-and-literary-art-piece-pays-homage-to-family-at-cortez-cultural-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Visual and literary art piece pays homage to family at Cortez Cultural Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sonja
Sonja Horoshko working in studio on the preliminary stage of her Satchel project in Cortez on March 12. (Johnny Walker\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Cortez Cultural Center is showcasing a visual and literary art piece called \u201cSatchel\u201d that pays homage to family ties and many of our ancestors\u2019 journeys to the United States.<\/p>\n

The exhibit is open to the public from through Sept. 30 during normal business hours at 25 N. Market St. The opening reception celebrating the artwork is Thursday, Sept. 1 from 6-8 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis groundbreaking collaborative exhibition poignantly speaks to the universality of displacement and movement throughout human history,\u201d said Rebecca Levy, executive director of the center. \u201cWe are pleased to present it to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

The artist behind \u201cSatchel\u201d is Sonja Horoshko, and she created this piece as a tribute to her grandparents\u2019 journey from Ukraine to the United States in the 1930s. They immigrated to the U.S. during Stalin\u2019s Reign of Terror, also known a the Great Purge.<\/p>\n

According to the news release from the cultural center, \u201cSatchel\u201d \u201cspotlights family migration\/relocation by interpreting cherished items and the stories they hold of family journeys when they immigrated to the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Horoshko first moved to Cortez, she served as an artist-in-residence for a year at Hovenweep National Monument. She said she was asked \u201cWhere are your people, Auntie?\u201d by many of the Navajo families that she encountered there.<\/p>\n

She was unsettled by the fact that she would only answer that they lived outside Denver without acknowledging her family\u2019s ties to their home country of Ukraine. Soon, her art began more and more to point toward her cultural identity and her family\u2019s origins.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian Orthodox Book of Prayers. Horoshko\u2019s grandfather carried the small book, printed in the Ukrainain language, in his pocket. The engraved illustrations in it inform Horoshko\u2019s visual art on exhibit in \"Satchel,\" at the Cortez Cultural Center through Sept. 30. (Courtesy photo)
Ukrainian Orthodox Book of Prayers. Horoshko\u2019s grandfather carried the small book, printed in the Ukrainain language, in his pocket. The engraved illustrations in it inform Horoshko\u2019s visual art on exhibit in \"Satchel,\" at the Cortez Cultural Center through Sept. 30. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Four items featured in \u201cSatchel\u201d are based on deeply sentimental items she brought with her when she moved to Cortez. These items were brought by her family when they emigrated from Ukraine. The items include a 1907 hemp passport holder from Bremen Shipways, a pocket-size Ukrainian Orthodox Book of Prayers from her paternal grandfather, a tobacco pouch and a Sami doll from her maternal grandparents.<\/p>\n

As people grow conscious of how each of us has moved on the planet at some time in our family history, we define common ground,\u201d Horoshko said. \u201cWe move, migrate and relocate for many reasons \u2013 a better job, education, love, seasonal agricultural and livestock needs, or to escape natural and economic disasters, war, plagues, discrimination, persecution and famine. I am hoping that those who participate in recalling stories from cherished family objects will realize in the end they are the satchel that carries their family story.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project was made possible by an art grant awarded to visual and literary artists and was funded by the National Endowment of the Arts through Colorado Creative Industries. \u201cSatchel\u201c also includes work from 12 other literary and visual artists who created pieces to add that represent their own family histories.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach of our families move or change locations to enhance and create security, happiness and survival. Humans are not static,\u201d Horoshko said.<\/p>\n

\"Hart
Hart Family Fetish Figure, 2022, graphite, paint, paper and board. The artist, Mondo Jud Hart, describes the figure as \u201c(allegedly) passed down on his father\u2019s side of the family from early 19th century West Africa.\u201d (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

These collaborating artists are: Mondo Jud Hart, Renee Podunovich, Eirene Hamilton, Sam Lyons, Michael Murphy, Cindy Yurth, Michael Thompson, Eudora Claw, Teena Deschenie, Maurus Chino, Silvia Pina, Joan Roberts Garcia, Jenny Treanor, Dante Downey and Ed Singer.<\/p>\n

Horoshko began creating the satchel before the war in Ukraine began, but after seeing the terror inflicted upon her family\u2019s home country, the art project soon had a whole new meaning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI witnessed real people in the news. They were fleeing, pulling suitcases, wearing backpacks, pushing strollers, packing what was essential to them. \u2026 I could not foresee such horror,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

After seeing the heartache in Ukraine, Horoshko found solace in her grandfather\u2019s Ukrainian Book of Prayers even if she couldn\u2019t read the writing. To her, the designs on the satchel \u201crepresent grief and sorrow of Putin\u2019s war,\u201d along with being a tribute to her lineage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are grateful to present this timely project to the public,\u201d Levy said. \u201cAncient migration stories are deeply embedded in the Southwest landscape, and resonate now more than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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