University of Central Florida Scholar Curates Show

UCF Scholar Natalia Marquez DaSilva

Editor’s note: Watch a video about the exhibit on UCF’s YouTube Channel.

Wooden hands, feet and legs dangle from the ceiling of Crealdé’s Winter Park art gallery. Below lay heads and more appendages – each representing a wish or a show of thanks.

In Brazil, such objects can be found in Miracle Rooms, spaces in Catholic churches devoted to religious offerings. They’re everywhere, says University of Central Florida McNair Scholar Natália Marques da Silva, a native of São Paulo and curator of the international exhibit of sacred objects, which runs through Saturday, June 5.

“We wanted to create something that would show how people around the world wish for miracles in different ways,” said Silva, who graduated last month from UCF with a bachelor’s degree in Art History. “And we wanted to find a way to get the Central Florida community involved in this practice.”

Silva’s exhibit, “Requesting Miracles: Votive Offerings from Diverse Cultures,” does just that. Alongside pieces of silver “milagros” and Japanese prayer boards are Altoids tins with Monopoly money and glued-on sequins.

Residents at the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida made many of the offerings during workshops that Silva and UCF Philosophy Professor Kristin Congdon held earlier this year.

“We realized that there are sectors of the population who aren’t often asked what they wish for,” Silva explains. “This is one of those groups that goes through a lot of hardships and could express their concerns in different ways.”

In scrawled marker, homeless men, women and children wrote well-wishes “for the people in Haiti,” for “those suffering addictions,” “to change my life” and “to be successful.” What’s interesting, Congdon and Silva say, is that many people made wishes for others, instead of themselves.

Duane Brittlebank, the coalition’s director of Program Services, attended the exhibit’s opening in late March with a bus full of residents.

“It’s very meaningful for them to participate,” she said, and it’s not often that Central Florida’s homeless can take part in or visit an international art exhibition.

For Congdon, the exhibit illuminates the connections between all people.

“This entire exhibit is about hope and healing,” she says. “We can all come together based on that humanness in us. Everybody wishes for miracles, especially in particularly difficult times when we’re all hoping for stability and strength in our own communities.”

“Requesting Miracles” displays offerings from Brazil, Mexico, Italy, Japan, Haiti and the United States. Its interactive altar space includes photos, trinkets and other personal effects from Central Floridians who’ve left behind their wishes to share with visitors.

The exhibit was made possible with a grant from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs and support from many local institutions, including UCF’s College of Arts and Humanities, the UCF Cultural Heritage Alliance and the UCF Center for Humanities and Digital Research.

Silva’s exhibit is also a result of her participation in UCF’s McNair Scholars Program and UCF Research and Mentoring Program (RAMP). In just a few weeks, she will leave Orlando for the University of Florida to pursue a master’s degree in Museum Studies.

-Article originally posted by Christine Dellert on June 2, 2010 in the University of Central Florida Online Newsroom.