From ME to WE: Jamming with Manny Vega | An Interactive Art-Making Workshop on Diasporic Histories
When: Saturday May 31st @ 1-4 PM
Where: The Metropolitan Museum, 1000 5th AvenueNew York, NY, 10028
Artist: Manny Vega
Developed as part of The Clemente’s Historias initiative and in conjunction with the re-opening of The Met’s newly reinstalled galleries for the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, this interactive workshop invites participants to reflect on New York City as a mosaic of diasporic journeys.
Led by renowned visual artist Manny Vega—whose improvisational, memory-rich practice draws from Afro-Caribbean, Latin American, and global traditions—this two-part workshop centers the city as a living archive shaped by generations of migration, adaptation, and cultural fusion. Just as The Met’s collections gather objects that reflect the diverse civilizations of the world, this workshop explores how our own stories form a collective tapestry of identities, rituals, and inherited memory.
Visitors are welcome to join either or both of the following drop-in projects, active from 1:00 to 4:00 PM:
Project 1: RECASTING THE PAST
Participants will collaborate with Vega in crafting a mosaic that reinterprets a selected artwork from The Met’s collection. By recontextualizing this object through contemporary materials, the group engages in an act of cultural translation—connecting past to present, and individual to collective.
Project 2: FRAMING WHAT CARRIES US
Drawing on prompts around memory, heritage, and the symbols that ground us, participants will create personal emblems that speak to their diasporic lineages. These elements will be woven into a large-scale communal artwork conceived by Vega, a visual record of the many pathways—personal and ancestral—that converge in New York City.
Through mosaic and collage,From ME to WEcelebrates the shared yet distinct narratives that define NYC as a diasporic city—one built, carried, and continually remade by movement, memory, and imagination.
*Stay tuned for more info SOON!