What We Carry: A Community Art Exhibition Opening Night

What We Carry: A Community Art Exhibition & Dialogue Presented by What’s Your Elephant™ Curated by Niki Lopez Opening Reception: Friday, August 21, 2026 Exhibition Dates: August 21 – September 10, 2026 Location: 1310 Gallery, Sailboat Bend Artist Lofts, Fort Lauderdale, FL What We Carry is an artist-led exhibition and community activation presented by What’s Your Elephant™, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that uses the arts to address the unspoken. Rooted in visual art, social practice, storytelling, and collective reflection, What We Carry explores the emotional, cultural, ancestral, political, and personal weight we hold — and the ways creativity helps us name, transform, release, and reimagine what lives within us. The exhibition brings together selected works by Niki Lopez alongside invited and selected artists whose practices engage themes of identity, memory, healing, belonging, resistance, grief, visibility, ancestry, care, and transformation. This exhibition is not only about hardship. It is also about what sustains us: beauty, breath, ritual, creativity, community, humor, softness, spirit, memory, and the possibility of being held. As both an exhibition and social practice container, What We Carry invites audiences to consider: What are we carrying? What has been passed down? What have we survived? What are we ready to name, release, hold differently, or transform together? The opening reception will include visual art, community reflection, connection, and opportunities to support the continued growth of What’s Your Elephant™. Additional programming, artist features, and community activations will be announced as the exhibition develops. Please check back for updates. CALL FOR ARTISTS Artists are invited to submit 3–5 available works for consideration. Submissions may connect to themes of identity, memory, healing, belonging, grief, resistance, visibility, ancestry, rest, transformation, what we inherit, what we release, and what we are learning to hold differently. Submission deadline: Friday, July 24, 2026 at 11:59 PM EST Submit artwork here: https://form.jotform.com/261875207083157 [https://form.jotform.com/261875207083157] SUPPORT WHAT WE CARRY Your donation helps support exhibition installation, signage, printing, supplies, documentation, artist/program support, community engagement, and the sustainability of What’s Your Elephant™. Support for this exhibition helps keep the work accessible to the public while honoring the labor required to produce meaningful community-centered art experiences. Donate / sponsor / share: https://givebutter.com/wye_whatwecarry [https://givebutter.com/wye_whatwecarry] More info on What We Carry: whatsyourelephant.org/whatwecarry [http://whatsyourelephant.org/whatwecarry] ABOUT THE CURATOR Niki Lopez is an award-winning Afro-Latina interdisciplinary artist, curator, cultural producer, and social practitioner based in South Florida. Since 2008, she has curated and produced community-centered exhibitions and arts experiences at 1310 Gallery and throughout South Florida, using art as a bridge for dialogue, healing, visibility, and collective care. Through her creative practice and nonprofit work, Lopez creates spaces where personal story, cultural memory, social issues, and creative expression can meet in meaningful ways. https://nikilopez.art [https://nikilopez.art/] ABOUT WHAT’S YOUR ELEPHANT™ What’s Your Elephant™ is a 501(c)(3) arts and education nonprofit founded by Niki Lopez that uses the arts to spark dialogue, promote emotional wellness, and address the unspoken. Since beginning as a movement in 2014 and becoming a nonprofit in 2023, WYE has engaged more than 3,500 people through exhibitions, workshops, conversations, wellness-centered gatherings, and immersive art experiences. The work centers storytelling, mindfulness, mental health, LGBTQ+ identity, social justice, gender equity, cultural memory, and community connection. https://whatsyourelephant.org [https://whatsyourelephant.org/]