The EMU's Visual Arts Team is excited to welcome Oregon artist Betty LaDuke's latest exhibit, on view for the first time ever: Border Lands 2019, A Sketchbook Journey. On view Summer 2019 in the Aperture Gallery.

Artist Statement: Border Lands 2019, A Sketchbook Journey is an experience on both sides of the Arizona and Mexico borders. Migrants and asylum seekers, individuals and families from Mexico and Central America desperately seek the American Dream of safety and opportunity. The sketches are amplified with the text to tell their story as well as the humanitarian aid migrants receive from several nonprofit organizations, including the Samaritans, Humane Borders, No More Deaths, Kino Border Initiative, and the Border Community Alliance. The Sisters of Notre Dame in Douglas, Arizona, have a presence in the border lands providing their hospitality to all who hunger, thirst, and are in need of compassion. The goal of all these groups is building bridges, not walls. As an artist, the sketchbook is my primary means for recording first-hand expericence and events. Later, in my studio, I transform select sketches into wood panels. These social justice panels frequently become circulating exhibitions at educational institutions and community art centers, and permanent public installations.