January 9 – 516 BRIDGES Spring 2025 Exhibition Opening

Friday, January 9, 2026 | 5–7 PM | Little Bear Coffee (Uptown) | Free

Join us for the opening reception of the 516 BRIDGES Spring 2025 Exhibition, showcasing collaborative student work created throughout the Spring 2025 semester. Developed through partnerships with Amy Biehl High School, Lew Wallace Elementary School, Valley High School, and Alvarado Elementary School, this exhibition brings together elementary and high school students in a shared creative process.

Inspired by the 516 Arts exhibition New Tableau: Experiments in Photography, students explored the fundamentals of photography alongside hand-built clay frames, working across age groups to produce 56 collaborative works. The project emphasizes experimentation, material exploration, and collaboration between students at different stages of learning. See photos of the workshop process here!

This exhibition reflects the core mission of the 516 BRIDGES program: to connect young minds to contemporary art while building meaningful relationships across generational, educational, and social divides. Join us for a relaxed evening celebrating student creativity, collaboration, and community.

Light snacks will be provided. Free and open to the public.

About 516 BRIDGES:

516 BRIDGES is an education program rooted in collaboration, designed to build connections between educational institutions, students, and arts professionals across generational, economic, experiential, and sociological divides. Through hands-on art-making and engagement with contemporary art, the program encourages students to develop creative and critical thinking skills while finding their own individual creative voices.

Meet the teaching artist:

Born in Albuquerque, NM, raised in Las Cruces, NM and with family in Laguna Pueblo, Margarita Paz-Pedro has ties across NM. Her background (Mexican-American, Laguna Pueblo & Santa Clara Pueblo) is core to her artmaking. She is a ceramic artist, teacher, organizer, and muralist. She received her BFA with an emphasis in Ceramics in 2003 from the University of Colorado-Boulder, an MA in Art Education in 2008 at the University of New Mexico and an MFA in Studio Arts-Integrated Practice from the Institute of American Indian Arts in 2023. She is currently an adjunct professor in Ceramics, where she can reciprocate the knowledge that has been given and shared with her, to others. She is a partner to a fellow artist and together they have a rowdy 11 year old.