Sol Aramendi is an artist and educator. A vocal agent for social change, she founded Project Luz, a nomadic physical and conceptual space for immigrant communities to learn, create, and communicate, allowing for the greatest agency and collaborative opportunity for all of the participants. Photography is the main tool of engagement.

She holds an MFA in Social Practice from Queens College, an Arte Util Residency at Immigrant Movement International, a fellowship from the Smithsonian Latino Museum Studies and has just completed a CORO Immigrant Civic Leadership program from the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.

Her ABOG Fellowship supported Apps for Power, which developed the Jornaler@ App. Conceived together with the support, research, and dynamic collaboration of immigrant day laborers, artists, organizers, developers, and lawyers, the Jornaler@ App links the struggle for immigrant workers’ rights to the concept of community accountability. The smartphone-based app will fight wage theft and restore power to the worker by allowing users to safely share their experiences and report abusive and neglectful employers, effectively inserting transparency into a previously exploitative and alienating system.

Artist Sol Aramendi Fights Wage Theft with Apps for Power – Reports from the Field

Visit Sol Aramendi’s website

Artist portrait by Claudia Prado.

Day laborers taking pictures at New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE), 2014. Photo by Luis Chimbo.
Sol Aramendi inside the Migrant Camera, a nomadic camera obscura tent inspired by worker shelters. Photo by Rosana Simonassi
Dark Treasure installation in How Much Do I Owe You?, organized by No Longer Empty, The Clock Tower, Long Island City, NY, December 12, 2012 – March 17, 2013. Photo by Claudia Prado.
New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) Day Laborers. Photo by Arnulfo Pachon.
Social Practice Residency, Yahşibey, Turkey, 2013. Photo by Sol Aramendi.
Decolonization Begins At Birth, breastfeeding workshop at Project Luz: The Classroom Art for All, Queens College, NY, 2013. Photo by Sol Aramendi.

AESTHETICS OF DOING: COMMUNITY ORGANIZING – JUNE 17, 2015
A conversation with Sol Aramendi, CEO and Founder of Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative Ebony Noelle Golden, and artist Elizabeth Hamby, moderated by Prerana Reddy, Director of Public Programs & Community Engagement at the Queens Museum. Click here to explore ABOG’s public programs.