A Foundation for Change at Salve Regina

From language learning to international arts, this nonprofit is making waves in Newport.

Photos courtesy of Salve Regina University

This year, the gallery is spilling outside its four walls. At the beginning of December, the gallery’s main exhibition wall was painted ruby red to welcome “Infancia,” a show by Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide, who was born in Mexico City in 1942. It is the gallery’s first international exhibition and features black and white photographs grouped intentionally to tell a story behind each frame.

A photo of three children, their faces obscured by a curtain, shows one holding a gun in a room illuminated by light from the window. Another depicts a blindfolded woman sitting in a chair as a child looks to her expectantly. Iturbide’s work does not make its intentions obvious; she leaves it to observers to draw their own conclusions.

Her local exhibit includes 42 silver gelatin prints, some published for the first time, that explore childhood and rural life across various parts of the world. Her past works have been shown at the Centre
Pompidou in Paris as well as major art museums and galleries in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston, and other American cities.

A Colombian-born foundation sparking change throughout Newport is credited as the catalyst for the launch of the “Infancia” exhibit at Salve Regina as well as a program placing language professors from the university in a classroom with local police officers.

A Gallery Gets Its Wish

In an email last spring to Susannah Strong, chairwoman of Salve’s Art and Art History Department, Fundación Magdalena expressed its interest in the university’s art gallery. The Colombian foundation established a charitable trust in the United States and proposed collaborating on artistic projects designed to bring visibility and change to vulnerable communities such as women, victims of violence, the elderly and immigrants.

“We’ve always aspired to international exhibitions, but it’s often not realistic for a university of our scale,” says Ernest Jolicoeur, director of Salve’s Hamilton Gallery. “With this partnership, we were able to find a way of working that was mutually beneficial. We can do things that we couldn’t do by ourselves otherwise, and our vision was shared [by Fundación Magdalena].”

That includes showcasing the works of established artists and providing workshops, classes, and seminars for students interested in visual arts. Area high school students recently completed an 11-week program that culminated in the Young Photographers Exhibit staged in the Antone Academic Center, steps away from them gallery.

Another student workshop is scheduled for the spring semester, when the gallery will welcome Roberto Huarcaya for a spring residency. A central figure in contemporary Peruvian photography, Huarcaya’s history with Fundación Magdalena runs deep; his art was featured in Cartagena when the foundation was based in Colombia last year.

Huarcaya will engage Salve students in communitybased art initiatives and collaborate with university and local high school students to create a body of work collectively. The final piece will be displayed to the public at Ochre Court.

As the collaboration continues to bloom, Salve’s Art and Art History Department is appreciative of its timing. “We don’t know what this world will be like in a year, but we see what it is now,” Chairwoman Strong says. “We have a belief in the transformative power of art that runs very deep in our department. So, when the opportunity presented itself, how could we not say, ‘yes please’?”

From Colombia To Rhode Island

Along Colombia’s Caribbean coast sits the port city of Cartagena. With its cobblestone streets, colorful buildings, and vibrant beaches, the beautiful seaside city seems perfect. Take a short drive outside the city, however, and reality sets in.

El Pozón is a large, impoverished neighborhood situated 90 minutes from the city center. While many citizens of Cartagena enjoy a cultured, lavish life, residents of El Pozón face rampant crime and violence. At the beginning of 2023, Fundación Magdalena para las Arts was established to challenge the social disparity in Cartagena.

“We found an amazing, beautiful, and cultured city divided into parts,” says Lía García, a Fundación Magdalena consultant who has spent the past several months in Newport, and recently began a university role as a liaison between Salve and the foundation. Through artist residency programs, an arts education and public safety initiative with the Colombian National Police, and other projects, the foundation worked to culturally enrich a neighborhood that was isolated from the vast happenings of the inner city.

After finishing its work in Colombia, Fundación Magdalena shifted its artistic mission to North America in early 2025. Some board members were familiar with Rhode Island, specifically Newport, as residents or past visitors. Understanding that the city, like Cartagena, is home to both the wealthy and the poor, the foundation looked at ways to once again tackle societal problems through art.

The mission of Salve Regina University, a Catholic institution founded by the Sisters of Mercy, is the pursuit of wisdom and universal justice, which aligns with the foundation’s philosophy and is the basis for the collaboration between the two, says García. The relationship has expanded to include other partners, including Conexión Latina, a local nonprofit organization serving Newport’s Latino families.

Newport Police Embrace Language Learning

Local women Rebekah Gomez, Yolanda Macias, Marissa Portillo, and Joyce Hunter established Conexión Latina in 2019 to provide resources for the influx of residents from Central America and to combat inequalities experienced by the city’s growing Latino community. It has since provided meals, organized public health clinics, and thrown festivals to celebrate Latino heritage.

Fundación Magdalena shares Conexión Latina’s mission to better the lives of Newport’s Spanish speaking residents, says Craig Baker, a foundation board member. And that includes making sure they are heard and understood. According to Rhode Island Kids Count, 27 percent of children living in Newport County identify as Hispanic or Latino; many reside with adults who do not speak English.

“I had asked Rebekah Gomez [of Conexión Latina] how many officers on the police force spoke Spanish. She told me she thought there was one,” Baker recalls.

The groups launched a program to offer Spanish lessons to Newport Police Department officers. Two professors from Salve, a teacher from Rogers High School, and a court translator were recruited as instructors.

“The problem is that we had limited natural means of communication with the Spanish-speaking
community,” says Newport Police Chief Ryan Duffy, a supporter of the effort to make police bilingual. Officers previously relied on a dial-an-operator interpreter service when they responded to calls involving victims, complainants or witnesses who spoke no English.

“It doesn’t build relationships,” he says. “It’s a BandAid to close an immediate gap in communication. But a better way is when two people can understand each other without the use of a third party.”

Patrolman Christopher Horwood was tasked with gauging interest among his colleagues.

“With it being a pilot program, we knew we needed to start small,” he says. “We also considered the desire to participate and be the guinea pigs in a completely new program that would have a lot of hiccups.”

Two patrol officers, one detective, and one officer assigned to the Police Department’s Community Oriented Policing division were selected for the inaugural season of Spanish lessons, which began in September. The students are driven and doing well, reports Horwood’s teacher.

“He studies a lot and comes prepared so we can continue our conversations each session,” says Esther Alarcón Arana, a program instructor and associate professor at Salve. “A lot of the vocabulary that we us. can be applied in regular, work-related conversations. At the same time, we want to build community, and you don’t do that only by policing — you need to be approachable. That’s what we’re working on.”

In the New Year, Fundación Magdalena will continue its work of bringing visibility and change to vulnerable communities through art, says Baker. “We define art in a broad way, and we think the police language program is artistic. Art is always a challenge to how we perceive things, to how we see the people around us, and it is also, and always, about change.”

For more information about future artist residencies and student exhibitions as part of this collaboration, visit www.salve.edu.