Fashioning an Icon at Mingei: Celebrating Cultural Heritage Through Textile Art
Step inside the "Fashioning an Icon" exhibit at the Mingei International Museum, where art, textiles, and cultural storytelling come together. This episode of Café Con Pam features a candid conversation at the museum itself with curator Ariana Torres and artist Arianna Ytselle.
More about Ariana Torres:
Ariana Torres was born in San Diego, California and raised in a Filipino-Mexican household. Her multi-cultural background shaped her ethos, combating the underrepresentation and one-dimensional portrayal of Filipinx and Mexican/Chicanx stories. She focuses on the importance of diverse cultural narratives and the revolutionary potential of images and objects that people produce and surround themselves with everyday–interests that also drew her to Mingei International Museum.
As the Assistant Curator at Mingei, she channels her passion for cultural storytelling through the medium of textiles, jewelry, and accessories. Her first major project was venue curating La Frontera, a cross-border travelling exhibition exploring the US-Mexico borderlands through jewelry. Her latest exhibition, Fashioning An Icon: Virgin of Guadalupe Imagery in Textile Design (April 5-September 7, 2025), explores the Virgin of Guadalupe’s status as an icon through garments and accessories by artists from different communities across Mexico and San Diego.
Ariana holds a BA in Studio Art from San Diego State University and an MA in Art History from the University of York, UK. Before becoming Assistant Curator, she worked as Mingei’s Assistant Registrar, and has held roles at the Museum of Photographic Arts and the Collection Stewardship Professional Network. In addition to her role at Mingei, Ariana volunteers as Programming Coordinator with San Diego Filipino Cinema, which promotes Filipino/a/x diaspora stories in film. She additionally serves on the Awards Subcommittee for the Association of Dress Historians, a UK-based non-profit that advances the study of global dress and textile history.
More about Arianna Ytselle:
Arianna Ytselle is a Chicana photographer and curator from Stockton, California and based in San Diego. Using photography’s power as a storytelling medium since 2008, she aims to challenge stereotypes and confront misrepresentations, presenting an unapologetic celebration of cultural pride. In addition to her photography and mixed media work, Arianna devotes time to organizing community art exhibitions, extending her intention to uplift, connect, and hold space for other artists across her multiple creative endeavors.
Check out "Fashioning an Icon" at Mingei Museum
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