Christopher Stender: FIRRP Immigration Art Exhibition

California-based immigration attorney Christopher Stender has served as a volunteer for the Florence Project in the past. Today, Christopher Stender remains on the list of free legal services providers from the U.S. Department of Justice.

On April 6, 2013, the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project (FIRRP) drew local residents and visitors for the opening of an art exhibition. The theme of the exhibit focused on immigration detention practices at Industria Studios in Tucson, Arizona. The event attracted guest artists from California to New York.

The reception began with an introduction from staff members of FIRRP who spoke about their organization, which supplies immigration detainees with free legal services. Artists donated 30 percent from their artwork sales to the Florence Project.

One local artist, Wesley Fawcett Creigh, attended with her interactive art project titled Painting by Numbers: Women in AZ Detention Centers, Bringing Numerical Statistics to Life. Ms. Creigh started her project after discovering a detention center near the town of Eloy and learning the stories of the thousands of undocumented migrants detained there. Essentially forgotten, center detainees included mothers who had been separated from their children.