Vámonos Pa’l Monte

Vámonos Pa’l Monte is an interdisciplinary public art and engagement project conceived by artist Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz, costume designer Kristina Tollefson, and Mural Arts Philadelphia; a living tribute to Puerto Rican culture, resilience, and the migration stories that shape communities across the diaspora.

Informing the project is the artist’s lived experience of splintered cultural inheritance, reassembly, and belonging. Raimundi-Ortiz has also spent a year immersed in creative community, through workshops and co-creation, with residents, artists, and culture workers in Norris Square, a neighborhood long at the heart of Philadelphia’s Puerto Rican population, and in Puerto Rico. In spring and summer 2026, project curator Marángeli Mejía-Rabell will lead a series of special events with Raimundi-Ortiz and guest artists, inviting broader participation from the public.

In fall 2026, the project culminates in a four-mile processional performance that will shift the city’s Semiquincentennial gaze toward the collective voice of a tightly knit community whose histories and traditions embody and articulate an inclusive vision of freedom. The processional route through Philadelphia will chart a course that moves from civic and colonial symbolism to neighborhood-centered, communal affirmation. Raimundi-Ortiz’s custom wardrobe, designed by Tollefson, will draw from Puerto Rico’s landscapes, ecology, history, and regional motifs, weaving these images and themes with Philadelphia’s colonial and modern-day histories. The wardrobe will also reflect the project’s emphasis on diaspora and inheritance—what one receives, loses, invents, and passes on to the next generation—by incorporating objects that hold personal and cultural meaning, carried forward throughout generations and reshaped by the experience of migration. More details about this event are forthcoming.

Following the fall 2026 processional event, a short film will capture the artists’ and participants’ creative journey throughout the life of the project, developed by filmmaker Jon Kaufman and released in winter 2026/2027.

At its core, Vámonos Pa’l Monte is a homecoming in motion and a journey to el monte, the symbolic mountaintop. It is an offering of culture and remembrance, and an open invitation to walk together toward a shared future.

Image at top: Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz, Vámonos Pa’l Monte, 2026. Film still by Jon Kaufman. Project Brand Identity by BRAAVE Tribe Collab.

En Español:

Vámonos Pa’l Monte es un proyecto interdisciplinario de arte público y participación comunitaria concebido por la renombrada artista Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz, la diseñadora de vestuario Kristina Tollefson y Mural Arts Philadelphia; un homenaje vivo a la cultura puertorriqueña, la resiliencia y las historias de migración que dan forma a las comunidades de toda la diáspora.

El proyecto se basa en la experiencia vivida por la artista de una herencia cultural fragmentada, su reconstrucción y el sentido de pertenencia. Raimundi-Ortiz también ha pasado un año inmersa en la comunidad creativa, a través de talleres y procesos de cocreación, junto a residentes, artistas y trabajadores culturales en Norris Square—un barrio que desde hace mucho tiempo ha sido el corazón de la comunidad puertorriqueña de Filadelfia—y en Puerto Rico. En la primavera y el verano de 2026, la curadora del proyecto, Marángeli Mejía-Rabell, dirigirá una serie de eventos especiales con Raimundi-Ortiz y artistas invitados, fomentando una mayor participación del público.

En otoño de 2026, el proyecto culminará en una representación procesional de cuatro millas que desviará la mirada del Semiquincentenario de la ciudad hacia la voz colectiva de una comunidad muy unida, cuyas historias y tradiciones encarnan y articulan una visión inclusiva de la libertad. El recorrido de la procesión por Filadelfia trazará un rumbo que pasará del simbolismo cívico y colonial a la afirmación comunitaria centrada en el barrio. El vestuario a la medida de Raimundi-Ortiz, diseñado por Tollefson, se inspirará en los paisajes, la ecología, la historia y los motivos regionales de Puerto Rico, entrelazando estas imágenes y temas con las historias coloniales y contemporáneas de Filadelfia. El vestuario también reflejará el énfasis del proyecto en la diáspora y la herencia —lo que uno recibe, pierde, inventa y transmite a la siguiente generación— mediante la incorporación de objetos con significado personal y cultural, cargados de generación en generación y transformados por la experiencia de la migración. Próximamente se darán a conocer más detalles sobre este evento.

Tras el evento procesional del otoño de 2026, un cortometraje capturará el viaje creativo de los artistas y participantes a lo largo de la vida del proyecto, desarrollado por el cineasta Jon Kaufman y que se estrenará en el invierno de 2026/2027.

En esencia, Vámonos Pa’l Monte es un retorno al hogar en movimiento y una travesía hacia el monte, la cima simbólica de la montaña. Es una ofrenda de cultura y memoria, y una invitación abierta a caminar juntos hacia un futuro compartido.

Special Acquisition:
Acquired in loving memory of Laurel Reuter, founder and Director Emeritus of the North Dakota Museum of Art, with funds from an anonymous donor

Special Acquisition:
Acquired in loving memory of Laurel Reuter, founder and Director Emeritus of the North Dakota Museum of Art, with funds from an anonymous donor

Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz
Las Evas

2022 - charcoal and pan pastel on 140 lb paper
72 x 150 in / 183 x 381 cm

North Dakota Museum of Art
Grand Forks, ND

ABOUT CLAIRE OLIVER GALLERY
 

Claire Oliver Gallery is located in Central Harlem in a four-story brownstone. For 33 years, Claire Oliver Gallery has showcased and celebrated artwork, with a focus on work by women and people of color, which transcends and challenges the traditional art historical canon. Our forward-thinking program and exclusive commitment to the primary market allows for an intensive focus that has nurtured and grown the careers of our artists. Many of the gallery’s artists have been included in The Venice Biennale, The Whitney Biennial, and biennales in Sydney, Pittsburgh, and Lyon and have exhibited works in major international museums including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, Center Georges Pompidou, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and The Los Angeles County Museum of Art amongst others. Claire Oliver Gallery artists are included in the permanent collections of many important museums worldwide including The Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Tate Britain, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The State Hermitage Museum, MoMA, and the Museum of Arts and Design amongst many others. Claire Oliver Gallery held the first American exhibition for the Russian collaborative AES+F, whose work went on to twice represent Russia in the Russian pavilion of the Venice Biennale. Gallery artists have received prestigious fellowships including Fulbright, Guggenheim, USArtist, and National Endowment for the Arts. 

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Please contact Claire Oliver Gallery with questions or requests: 
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About the Book

A curated selection of key texts and artists’ voices exploring US Latinx art and art history from the 1960s to the present.
 
A Handbook of Latinx Art is the first anthology to explore the rich, deep, and often overlooked contributions that Latinx artists have made to art in the United States. Drawn from wide-ranging sources, this volume includes texts by artists, critics, and scholars from the 1960s to the present that reflect the diversity of the Latinx experience across the nation, from the West Coast and the Mexican border to New York, Miami, and the Midwest.
 
The anthology features essential writings by Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban American, Dominican American, and Central American artists to highlight how visionaries of diverse immigrant groups negotiate issues of participation and belonging, material, style, and community in their own voices. These intersectional essays cut across region, gender, race, and class to lay out a complex emerging field that reckons with different histories, geographies, and political engagements and, ultimately, underscores the importance of Latinx artists to the history of American art.

About the Book

A curated selection of key texts and artists’ voices exploring US Latinx art and art history from the 1960s to the present.
 
A Handbook of Latinx Art is the first anthology to explore the rich, deep, and often overlooked contributions that Latinx artists have made to art in the United States. Drawn from wide-ranging sources, this volume includes texts by artists, critics, and scholars from the 1960s to the present that reflect the diversity of the Latinx experience across the nation, from the West Coast and the Mexican border to New York, Miami, and the Midwest.
 
The anthology features essential writings by Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban American, Dominican American, and Central American artists to highlight how visionaries of diverse immigrant groups negotiate issues of participation and belonging, material, style, and community in their own voices. These intersectional essays cut across region, gender, race, and class to lay out a complex emerging field that reckons with different histories, geographies, and political engagements and, ultimately, underscores the importance of Latinx artists to the history of American art.

About the Author

Rocío Aranda-Alvarado is an art historian and curator focused on contemporary US Latinx and modern and contemporary Latin American, Caribbean, and African American art. She is Senior Program Officer for arts and culture at the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice.
 
Deborah Cullen-Morales is an art historian and curator focused on modern and contemporary Latinx, Caribbean, and African American art. She is Program Officer for arts and culture at the Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest funder in the arts, culture, and humanities.