Teens Art Statement - Fragments, 2022

“Fragments” is a collaborative effort from the teens in Missoula, the resident artist Janaina Vieira-Marques and the Missoula Art museum. This program and art installation aims to highlight the voices and views of youth from varying backgrounds, to answer the question, “What is our shared sense of place?” as well as to beautify the city of Missoula with a public art piece.

Using Polaroids, we took photos of places, moments, people and objects that our life is surrounded by. We also created a collaborative poem that combined the diversity of voices and thoughts about our lives and identity. We use polaroids, where images are displayed slightly faded to convey the idea of memory. We understand that we will change and grow as time goes by.

We are a team of many people from different walks of life that hopes to bring diversity, communication, as well as emotion to our audience. We hope that this installation invokes inspiration and thought to our local community.

— TAP summer 2022