Visual artist Gala Reneaum Tello is inviting Northwest Arkansas residents to contribute their personal keepsakes for her latest project, “Parteaguas,” a community collage that transforms everyday mementos into shared artwork. The call for ephemera—including concert tickets, handwritten notes, receipts, and to-do lists—will remain open until September 18.
Tello’s work captures the quiet textures of memory, stitching together small objects that many might overlook but that carry deep personal significance. “Así se siente un recuerdo (Estrellas en la sala) // This is how a memory feels (Stars in the living room),” one of her collaged photographs, reflects this sensibility, presenting fragments of daily life as something luminous and poetic.
The project takes its materials directly from the community, inviting participation from anyone who has held onto an artifact from a meaningful moment. These pieces become part of a larger narrative that maps the emotional geographies of Northwest Arkansas through the accumulated impressions of its residents.
There is an intimacy to Tello’s approach—every item bears the imprint of a story: a ticket stub saved from the night music filled a room, a scrawled grocery list penned in the early days of moving to a new home. By weaving these tokens together, the artist calls attention to the ordinary as a vessel for memory, preserving the texture of time in physical form.
Art like this resonates in a region where community ties run tight and histories overlap. It challenges viewers to reconsider the scraps cluttering their drawers or waiting to be tossed, asking them to see the emotional weight these small objects can hold. Part gallery exhibit, part communal memoir, “Parteaguas” becomes a collective act of remembering, a shared archive that unfolds in public spaces.
Residents curious about participating can reach out directly to the project organizers for details on how to submit their ephemera. The process is designed to be accessible, encouraging a diverse range of contributions from all walks of life. Whether the items are worn paper, faded photographs, or handwritten notes, each carries a fragment of a life lived in Northwest Arkansas.
The exhibition that emerges from this gathering of personal histories invites a slow, reflective engagement. It’s not just an assembly of old paper or ticket stubs, but a meditation on place, memory, and the layers that create identity in a region undergoing rapid change.
Tello’s invitation to share stories through objects emphasizes connection. In a moment when everyday moments risk becoming anonymous, the artist’s work reclaims them, giving shape and voice to the quiet moments that define a community.
“Parteaguas” will offer a tangible reminder that the past is stitched into the present in unexpected ways. It will be a chance for Northwest Arkansas residents to see themselves within a broader narrative—in the patterns formed by shared memories and collective experience.
For many, the project offers a pause. It asks us to slow down and examine what we hold onto—and why. To consider the ordinary as extraordinary. And ultimately, to participate in an artwork that honors the small treasures of daily life in Northwest Arkansas.
Source: NWA Democrat Gazette
