Gretchen Baer

Bisbee, AZ

Naco Intercambio - Cross-Border Community Art Projects and Exhibit

Gretchen Baer is a Bisbee-based artist renowned for her vibrant murals, community art projects, and cross-border activism. As founder and director of Studio Mariposa—a free, nonprofit kids' art center in Naco, Sonora—she has spent the past eight years nurturing creativity among youth and families in the borderlands. For her Naco Heritage Alliance Fellowship project, Baer proposes a series of two bi-national art exhibitions at Camp Naco featuring artists from Naco, Mexico. Each show will explore the themes of "Past, Present, and Future" through paintings that reflect border life, personal histories, and visions for what lies ahead. Working closely with local artists—many of whom have ancestral and personal ties to Camp Naco, the Buffalo Soldiers, and regional historical events—she will mentor participants in creating original works and curate celebratory community events around the exhibitions. Her goal is to foster cross-cultural exchange, preserve underrepresented narratives, and bring greater visibility to border-based artistic voices often overlooked in historical discourse.