Tabor Welcomes Visiting Visual Artist Iaritza Menjivar

The Tabor Community is delighted to welcome Iaritza Menjivar as our Tomlinson Fellow Visiting Artist! Iaritza is a nationally recognized and award-winning, Boston based photographer specializing in documentary style work centered around themes of family, identity, community, and resilience.

The Tomlinson Fellowship, established in 1986 in memory of trustee Joseph Tomlinson, provided dedicated funding for the visual and performing arts department, and enables Tabor to host a diverse array of visiting artists. Awardees must demonstrate outstanding and sustained achievement in the visual, literary, and performing arts, be nominated for the fellowship, and approved by faculty.

Iaritza’s photography has been exhibited nationally and published in The Washington Post and The New York Times, with her piece “Honoring a Debt to Immigrant Parents” featured as part of her First Generation photo series.

In 2022, Iaritza was recognized as one of WBUR’s “The Makers: 15 Artists of Color Leaving an Imprint on Massachusetts.” Her pandemic-era photography projects were featured in the short documentary film “We Are Here Too,” which highlights her commitment to documenting local communities.

The following year she received a Sustaining Practice Grant from the Collective Futures Fund, and in 2024, was honored with a Commonwealth Heroine Award from the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women for her impactful contributions to the community through the Museo Inmigrante project.

On her visit to campus, she worked with students in the Advanced Photography class on a workshop focused on the importance of storytelling through images. Her Artist Talk centered on her inspirations and her own work. She highlighted the importance family, and her life as the daughter of immigrant parents and spoke about how her work is based in building community and sharing people's stories.

Her exhibition, Felt Like Something Was There…, currently on display in Braitmayer Gallery, is composed of “photographs made from moments that hold deep and intense emotions, and how the sensations that accompany our experiences linger long after we have moved on from them.”

She notes, “Memories remain with us; they become part of the story we carry. But with time, we can begin to see those chapters differently. We can close some books, return to others, and choose which stories we want to continue writing.”