UMass Lowell Show and Artists’ Reception are Free and Open to the Public
03/02/2023
Media contacts: Emily Gowdey-Backus, director of media relations, Emily_GowdeyBackus@uml.edu and Nancy Cicco, assistant director of media relations, Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu
UMass Lowell show and artists’ reception are free and open to the public
For Joel Victoriano Rojas, a hike up Mount Pico – a dormant volcano on Pico Island in the Azores, off the coast of Portugal – was literally and figuratively the pinnacle of the trip.
Pico, the highest mountain in the country, was just one of the feats Rojas conquered during a UMass Lowell study abroad opportunity that had him touring a Portuguese whaling museum, celebrating a religious festival and socializing with locals over ice cream. All the while, camera in hand, Rojas was documenting his adventures as part of an art and design course focusing on documentary imaging.
The pilgrimage to the Azores took Rojas and 11 of his classmates to the islands for 11 days over summer 2022. As part of the course, they researched the history of Azorean immigrants, who for decades in the late 19th and 20th centuries emigrated from the islands to the Mill City. Then, students used what they learned as a springboard to photograph four Azorean islands: São Miguel, Faial, Pico and São Jorge.
“The whole idea of the program is to give back to the Portuguese community in Lowell,” said Rojas, who grew up in Lawrence and lives in Woburn. “The thing for me during the trip was to become a local and bring as much of that experience back to our American melting pot as I could,” he said. “Now, the Azores are just another place for me to call home.”
Today, Rojas is a UMass Lowell graduate pursuing a career in architecture. His photographs from the trip are displayed as part of “Azores through the Lens,” a free exhibit open to the public through Wednesday, March 8, 2023, when the university will host a reception for the show’s artists from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The event and exhibit will be held inside UMass Lowell’s University Crossing student center at 220 Pawtucket St., Lowell.
The show is also a companion piece to the coffee table book “Azores through the Lens,” which shares Rojas’ and others’ imagery.
“Photography, as a medium, allowed the students to explore the islands on their own terms,” said UMass Lowell’s Pavel Romaniko, an art and design assistant teaching professor who directs UMass Lowell’s digital media program. “Students bonded through the experience of learning about a new place and culture and worked collaboratively on not only the exhibit but the book as a communication of that experience.” Romaniko designed and organized the study-abroad program with Anna Isaak-Ross, manager of the university’s studio space for art and design majors.
UMass Lowell students who participated in the program hail from Belmont, Burlington, Dracut, Dorchester, Lawrence, Leominster, Lowell, Roslindale and Woburn, Massachusetts, as well as Washington, D.C.
Students had the opportunity to travel to Portugal through the support of the Regional Government of the Azores and UMass Lowell, particularly the university’s Saab Center for Portuguese Studies.
“This wonderful exhibition is the result of a first-rate study abroad program, which dovetails with the Saab Center's mission to promote opportunities for students in the area of Portuguese studies on campus and in Portugal. Support of this program is in line with the center's aim to collaborate with other academic programs on campus,” said Frank Sousa, the center’s director and a UMass Lowell professor of world languages and cultures.
Founded in 2013 through the generosity of the Saab Family Fund, the center promotes the multidisciplinary study of the language, literature and culture of the vast and varied Portuguese speaking world comprised of more than 250 million people.
UMass Lowell is a national research university offering its students bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in business, education, engineering, fine arts, health, humanities, sciences and social sciences. UMass Lowell delivers high-quality educational programs and personal attention from leading faculty and staff, all of which prepare graduates to be leaders in their communities and around the globe. www.uml.edu