The Art of History in Framingham: Medium & Memory
Our community remembers history through stories, text, objects, and art. The Art of History in Framingham explores how art can preserve, interpret, and shape our understanding of the city’s past, bringing historical works from the collection and contemporary artists into conversation with the people, places, and stories of Framingham.
For months, I spent a lot of time in the collection at the Framingham History Center. With more than 20,000 artifacts in its collection storage, we had a lot to consider. Our docent, Barbara Rosenberg, did much of the work of going through the collection and selecting objects for us to consider. From there, we organized the selections into eight mediums: photography, painting, performing arts, literary arts, sculpture, accessories, textiles, and music.
Once the objects were chosen, we reached out to local artists and invited them to create new work inspired by something from the collection. The medium did not have to match the original object. We wanted artists to have the freedom to respond to Framingham history in their own way.
Among the artists we collaborated with were Kendall Winston, a textile artist and recent Framingham State University graduate, who created a striking framed floral textile piece inspired by a painting by Margaret Kendall; Pam Bonaguide, whose sculpture was inspired by an old photograph of a play at the Reformatory Prison for Women, now MCI-Framingham. Her work makes us think about the children of incarcerated women peeking through the curtains to watch their mothers perform; Larisa Gotovkina, a local mixed-media artist who responded to a beautiful 1920s poster of “Margie and her maids” by incorporating a violin into her work; and writer Bracken MacLeod, who responded to a photograph by Wallace Nutting by creating an original short story inspired by the image.
Then there is my own work, Historia de una Madre (“A Mother’s Story”). It features two photographs of my great-grandmother: one with her daughter, my grandmother, and another of her sitting in a chair reading a book.
While researching and working on the piece, I discovered that my grandmother had been adopted. What I had always understood about my family history suddenly changed. The connection I thought I had to my great-grandmother was more complicated than I had realized, and there was now a missing part of my family story that I could not fully explain.
In one of the photographs, I gave my grandmother a birdcage. She grew up knowing she was adopted and feeling different because of it. She married young and eventually left home. The birdcage represents both her longing for freedom and the unanswered questions about her biological parents.
To process this discovery, I added a strand of red yarn to the piece. Yarn has been a recurring element in my work. It connects me to my roots and to the women in my family, who passed down skills like sewing, embroidery, and working with their hands. The red represents blood, family ties, and the connections that bind generations together. It also represents the gaps in my own family history. For me, art creates a space to explore these connections, to make sense of what has been lost, and to sit with the things we may never know.
I built the work inside a cigar box that opens and closes. This echoes the historic brooch displayed next to it in the gallery, which contains human hair. Before photography, keeping a lock of a loved one’s hair in jewelry was one way people held onto their memory. Today, we use photographs. Placing Historia de una Madre next to the hair brooch creates a connection between these two ways of remembering and the very human need to hold onto the people we love.
The exhibition opened at the Framingham History Center, Edgell Memorial Library, on August 27, 2026.
This is Your Plaza
Earlier this past spring, the City of Framingham and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) issued a public call for artists to create a creative placemaking project in historic Nevins Hall. I was thrilled when my proposal was selected, and This Is Your Plaza / Esta es tu Plaza / Esta é a sua praça / यह आपका चौक है was born.
From the beginning, I wanted to create the feeling of a Latin American plaza: a shared public space where people naturally come together, encounter one another, linger, participate, and feel a sense of belonging. A place to share stories, make things, play, eat, dance, and simply enjoy being together.
Over two months, I worked to transform Nevins Hall into a temporary civic and cultural gathering space. An important part of that process was reaching people directly, including going door to door in Latino and Brazilian communities. I wanted to make sure the invitation reached the people of Framingham, not just those who were already connected to the city or its cultural programs. I used community organizations, flyers, social media, WhatsApp, Eventbrite, local gatherings, colorful lawn signs, and personal connections to spread the word.
Nevins Hall was transformed from a large, formal, mostly empty room into a colorful, festive multicultural plaza. Papel picado and tropical paper birds filled the space, colorful banners hung from the balcony, and four large interactive walls invited people to participate. The Family Archive invited people to share migration stories and family memories. The Love Map became a place to mark the places that are meaningful to them in Framingham. The Vision Wall asked people to imagine the future of arts and culture in the city, while the Bridge Wall invited people to share the cultural traditions, celebrations, and communities they wanted to see represented.
Creating the plaza was also about making people feel welcome and comfortable. Eight bilingual facilitators were present each day to welcome visitors, explain the activities, encourage participation, and help people share their ideas. LUCE verifiers were also present throughout the weekend, helping build trust with immigrant communities and making sure people felt comfortable participating. Food was another important part of the experience. Food trucks offered free tacos and ice cream, bringing people together around a shared table.
On August 15 and 16, 2026, more than 800 people came through Nevins Hall, many from South Framingham. The space came alive with music from around the world, food, games, art-making, storytelling, and conversation. People could participate in Conversation Café, play Lotería Mexicana and dominoes, make collages and origami, contribute to giant coloring stations, and leave their thoughts, memories, and visions for the future of arts and culture in Framingham on the four interactive walls.
People sat together at shared tables. Strangers became game partners. Families created art together. Children and adults added their own pieces to the larger installations. The room was constantly changing, shaped by the people who walked through the doors.
One of my favorite things was seeing how naturally people from different backgrounds, who did not know each other, connected. It was wonderful to watch people sit together, play games, make things, and share stories.
That, to me, is what public art and creative placemaking can do.
This project was never just about transforming a room. It was about creating a space where people could see themselves, their cultures, and their community reflected and celebrated.
The stories, ideas, and artwork shared during the weekend will help inform Framingham’s Arts and Culture Vision Plan and the future of Nevins Hall.
www.mapc.org/resource-library/framinghamartsculturevisionplan
Pieced: an exploration of collage
I'm happy to announce an exciting exhibition. I've been working on collage for the last two years, and now it doesn't surprise me that I've finally been invited to an all-collage exhibition, curated by the wonderful Jessica Burko.
I can tell I'm in very good company, and I can't wait to see all the artwork together—it will certainly be a treat. For this exhibition, I'll be presenting six pieces of my project Terra Obscura, which I developed during my Artist in Residence at the Woodstock Center for Photography in New York.
Spring Collage
It was a deliciously relaxing experience to settle into my new art space and carefreely combine images. This work was created using the accumulated leftovers from my art projects over the last ten years. I managed to create 25 pieces. Here are my favs. I don't have titles yet and I am thinking of using them as inspiration for poems.
A new project: El arbol que llora / The crying tree
Some images from my latest project, El árbol que llora (The Crying Tree), the culminating chapter of my project, Mi país imaginado (My Imagined Country)
Between 1879 and 1912, the Peruvian Amazon endured a brutal era of rubber extraction, often termed "ethnocide" or "genocide." This dark chapter, deliberately omitted from our national narrative, saw the tragic loss of over 40,000 indigenous lives due to the inhumane conditions imposed by the Peruvian Amazon Company. Financed by British capital and led by Peruvian Julio César Arana, the company's operations in the Putumayo River region were marked by mistreatment, starvation, torture, and murder.
To shed light on this hidden history, I have superimposed historical documents onto the pages of "Rubber, a Wonder Story," a children's book published in 1919 by the United States Rubber Company. This propaganda piece glorifies the rubber industry, deliberately obscuring the atrocities committed to fuel the growing demand for automobiles and other rubber products.
Through El árbol que llora, I invite viewers to confront the complexities of our shared past and to consider the ongoing repercussions of unchecked corporate greed.
La Ciudad en las Nubes in the Biennale della Fotografia Femminile in Mantua, Italy
Here some images of my project La ciudad en las nubes which was invited to participate in the Biennale della Fotografia Femminile in the gorgeous city of Mantova, Italy. A photo festival highlighting the work of women photographers through exhibitions, talks, workshops, and more. I am so honored to have had the chance to exhibit my complete series of La ciudad en las nubes and I only wish I could have been there. Great projects and energy. Thanks to curator Alessia Locatelli and all the team who worked so hard and so well.
La ciudad en las nubes gets shorlisted for a PhMuseum Grant
La ciudad en las nubes was shorlisted along other 31 incredible projects for the 7th edition of the PhMuseum 2023 Women Photographers Grant. Our work is in consideration for €10,000 in cash, and will be projected at Photo Vogue Festival 2023 (Milan, 16-19 November). The jurors for this edition are Anna Goldwater Alexander, Director of Photography at WIRED, Bindi Vora, Visual Artist and Curator at Autograph, Holly Roussell, Curator at UCCA & Guest Curator at Paris Photo Curiosa and Taous Dahmani, Curator of Louis Roederer Discovery Award at Les Rencontres d’Arles & The Eyes Magazine Editor. I feel very happy and grateful for this recognition. You can see all the selected projects here: https://phmuseum.com
Terra obscura is a Photolucida Critical Mass Top 50 Project
Very pleased that my latest project Terra obscura got selected as a Photolucida Critical Mass Top 50 series. https://www.photolucida.org/top-50/claudia-ruiz-gustafson. This project was completed at my residence at the Center for Photography at Woodstock in 2022.
Grateful for these generous comments from the jurors:
“Clean and striking when it needs to be to immediately communicate the message. And the message is quite clear without going overboard. I find images 8 and 9 to be quite daring—taking on two of the pillars of photographic history is quite brave. And welcomed very much. Thank you for submitting. Beautiful work. I look forward to seeing what else you make.”
“Your work demonstrates a remarkable talent for constructing layered and complex visual images, working with photography in novel ways. As you continue to evolve as an artist, I encourage you to embrace even bolder experimentation. It's through pushing the boundaries of photography that you can often discover the most remarkable and innovative forms of artistic expression. I'm excited to see how your work will evolve as you explore synergies with other creative practices, such as drawing, collage, and printmaking. These interdisciplinary connections have the potential to take your art to new and exciting heights. Please know that your contributions to the world of art and culture are highly valued, and I look forward to witnessing your continued growth and success as an artist.”
“These works combine fine calibrations and aggressive collisions, and -- powerfully -- not just of visual elements but of meanings, histories, and representations. I've long been a fan of Robert Heinecken, an influential artist and educator in Los Angeles where I live. Here is one of Heinecken's comments: "I am interested in what I term gestalts; picture circumstances which bring together disparate images or ideas so as to form new meanings and new configurations." As you state in your narrative, the camera was another weapon in the wars of domination. It seems appropriate to take these images and turn them into shouts for liberation because, in our age, whoever controls the images controls the culture.”
“Love the anthropological feel and the combination of ingredients here. This makes me feel like I've been given access to your entire process. I think this would be an incredible book and exhibition.”
“Collage can be a difficult thing. You present interesting work as I learn alot about you as a person. Issues close to the heart are important to present and to create awareness to others of these issues.”
“You are dealing with important issues. And of course they are huge and go far beyond photography. But there is enough blood on the lens to keep you busy through a long career. I applaud your work.”
La Ciudad en las Nubes opens in Houston
This year, I had the fortune to receive the Houston Center of Photography Fellowship given by Elizabeth Ferrer, curator and writer specializing in Latinx art and photography. I am writing this post during my week at Houston where I am having a solo show. I love this beautiful city and working at the HCP where everyone has been very warm and generous with me. Today we finished installing and I cannot be more happy with the outcome. Here some installation images of the exhibition. The opening reception will be on Friday, December 9th from 6pm to 8pm.
A month in Woodstock
How can I describe a town like Woodstock, NY: healing, magical, beautiful, spiritual, fun, artistic and more. My AIR experience at the Centre for Photography at Woodstock-Kingston was everything I expected. My housemate was Sarah May, a young artist who works with textiles and cyanotypes. We had many great conversations over dinner and some local adventures exploring the town including thrift stores and flea markets where I found materials for my collages. I was able to complete my work Terra Obscura and start printing for my upcoming exhibition of La Ciudad en las Nubes in Houston. Here's a slideshow from pics from that fabulous month.
My First Artist-In-Residency: Woodstock!
I am very happy to announce that I am a 2022 Woodstock Artist-In-Residence! https://www.cpw.org/news/press-release-announcing-2022-woodstock-air/ This has been a dream of mine for a long time and I am grateful to the jurors Aldeide Delgado, Kris Graves and Qiana Mestrich. I cannot wait to spend a month this fall working on my ongoing project Terra Obscura immersed in this incredible community of visual makers.
I am the Guest Curator at Fraction Magazine
I had the honor to be the Guest Curator for the last issue of Fraction Magazine in which I feature four extraordinary Latin American and Latinx visual artists: Flor Ruiz from Peru, Carol Espindola from Mexico, Diego De la Vega from Peru and Vivian Poey, Cuban American based in the U.S. Take a time to enjoy these rich stories: http://www.fractionmagazine.com/issue-156
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts acquires work from my series Maria
I am super happy to share that the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the first and oldest art museum in the U.S., founded in 1805, has acquired five prints from my series Maria, these works will be accessioned into the museum’s permanent collection. I am very grateful for the trust of Brittany Webb and Juan Omar Rodriguez and of course to The Print Center for giving us artists this annual opportunity. And just to add an odd note, a couple of weeks ago I wrote in my planner the name of this museum for a summer visit since I was intrigued about a painting from Peale: The Artist in His Museum. I have been thinking about "wunderkammers" a lot lately. This totally keeps me going.
5 Years of Aspect Initiative at the Danforth
I am looking forward to 5 Years of Aspect Initiative at the Danforth, an Invited Group Show where 33 New England photographers will be exhibiting new work. This event is curated by Jessica Roscio and Steven Duede. Art is important for our society and I can hardly wait to celebrate art and artists next month. Please, join us.
Crossing Cultures: Family, Memory and Displacement 4.0
I am very excited about the upcoming Crossing Cultures: Family, Memory and Displacement 4.0 exhibition that I started curating in 2019 which has been travelling around Massachusetts. We are now six artists with roots in four regions. Participating artists: Astrid Reischwitz, Nilou Moochhala, Vivian Poey, Shabnam Jannesari, Nicolas Hyacinthe and myself. Please mark your calendar for our In-Person Reception with the Artists on Friday, March 11th at 5pm at A.P.E. Arts Gallery in Northampton.
