Welcome to Paradise:¡Viva Puerto Rico Libre! - a VR exploration and discussion

Name: Welcome to Paradise:¡Viva Puerto Rico Libre! - a VR exploration and discussion
Start: 2025-01-18T14:00:00-08:00
End: 2025-01-18T17:00:00-08:00
Location: 3001 21st Ave S, Seattle, WA, United States, Washington 98144

Schedule

Sat Jan 18 2025 at 02:00 pm to 05:00 pm

UTC-08:00

Location

3001 21st Ave S, Seattle, WA, United States, Washington 98144 | Seattle, WA

Immerse yourself in a virtual reality experience of the world’s oldest colony: "Welcome to Paradise: ¡Viva Puerto Rico Libre!" then join us for an interactive discussion with the artist Jo Cosme and writer Beverly Aarons, founder of Artists Up Close.
One day only:
Saturday, January 18
2:00 - 5:00pm: Art and VR viewing
3:00 - 3:45pm: Discussion with Jo Cosme and Beverly Aarons
At The Grocery Studios
3001 21st Ave S, Seattle 98144
Get your tickets at Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/welcome-to-paradise-a-vr-exploration-of-the-worlds-oldest-colony-tickets-1136176166499
Sliding scale $5 - $25
All proceeds go to the artist and interviewer
"Welcome to Paradise: ¡Viva Puerto Rico Libre!" is an immersive multimedia installation featuring artworks that juxtapose the opulence enjoyed by some with the stark living conditions of others. Explore lenticular photos contrasting housing inequities, a Discover Puerto Rico tourism campaign sign hand-stitched from hurricane tarps, a ten-foot inflatable Vejigante mask, and a virtual reality simulation.
Jo Cosme:
Jo Cosme is a Native Boricua and award-winning multimedia artist who was displaced from Borikén to Seattle one year after Hurricane María. Her shock over North Americans’ ignorance of the archipelago inspired her to create works that provoke reflections on U.S. imperialism, disaster capitalism, and neocolonialism in her homeland. Cosme holds a BFA in photography from Puerto Rico’s School of Fine Arts. Her work has been exhibited at the Museo de las Américas (PR), the Whatcom Museum, Out of Sight, Photographic Center Northwest, Dab Art Gallery (Los Angeles), and Galerie Rivoli 59 (Paris) among other venues. In 2021, she was granted the Puerto Rican Artist Fellowship at MASS MoCA’s A4A Residency, followed by Northwest Film Forum’s Collective Power Fund grant and Artist Trust’s GAP grant in 2022. Most recently, Cosme was awarded Pratt Fine Arts Center’s Bernie Funk Artist Scholarship, the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture’s City Artist grant, McMillen Foundation’s 2023 Fellowship, and was named one of 4Culture’s 2023 Arc Fellows. She is currently participating in Inscape’s AiR program and plans to attend Anderson Ranch in the fall.
“Showing this project in the continental U.S. serves as an educational experience to raise awareness and as a call to action against imperialism. My goal is to have North American audiences contemplate what it’s like to be a native inhabitant of the places they vacation and take land from.”

Beverly Aarons:
With a professional writing career spanning 30+ years, Beverly Aarons is a distinguished storyteller, exploring the intersections of history, current realities, and imagined future worlds. As an award-winning journalist, she has interviewed a diverse range of individuals, from artists and business owners to scientists, for publications such as South Seattle Emerald and The Iranian. And she has facilitated several conversations at Town Hall Seattle.
Recognizing the need for in-depth arts coverage, Beverly Aarons founded Artists Up Close in 2022. Her passion for uncovering the deeper layers of artists' lives and creative processes drives her to tell stories that transcend superficial hot-takes and soundbites. In 2023, she began collaborating with Seattle artists and organizations to create unique, transformative artist conversations that are more than just a bunch of talking heads and a silent audience. Her artist gatherings are more than talks, they’re community discussions.
"I created Artists Up Close because I’m hungry for arts coverage that goes deep. I’m hungry to read it and I’m hungry to write it. We live in an era of quick hot takes, sound bites, and copy/paste press releases. I’m tired of that. I want to dig beneath the surface of artists’ lives and artistic practices. What makes them tick? What is their reason for existing and creating? I want to take a trip deep into the mind of the artist. Come take that journey with me."