Symbiotic Circuits

Symbiotic Circuits is a reciprocal artist-scholar exchange where social change emerges from sustained creative collaboration across borders. The project envisions Notre Dame's global locations as interconnected nodes for arts activism, beginning with Dublin and Mexico City before traveling to South Bend for creative exchange in the regional arts community.

During residency exchanges, artists travel to partner cities to explore art’s role in community organizing and building solidarity across differences. Artists will immerse themselves through community conversations, site visits, and workshops before convening to share The International Arts Residencies Toolkit: a bilingual digital resource documenting methodologies, case studies, and frameworks for organizers, educators, and artists.

Credits

Notre Dame Mexico & Notre Dame Dublin

Notre Dame Mexico and Notre Dame Dublin are part of the University’s global network across nine countries worldwide. These global locations create unique opportunities for Notre Dame to engage with the world and for the world to engage with Notre Dame through scholarly collaboration, undergraduate and graduate studies, and cooperative programs with governments, foundations, corporations, alumni, parents, and friends of the University.

Notre Dame Mexico serves as a platform for faculty to expand their research in new directions with Mexican leaders in their respective fields. Faculty work in a wide cross-section of fields relevant to both Mexico and the United States including transitional justice, human rights, nanotechnology, engineering, public health, and theology, among others.

Notre Dame Dublin is the link between the University of Notre Dame and Ireland, fostering collaboration and facilitating mobility for students, faculty, and researchers in both directions. Located in the historic O'Connell House on Merrion Square, Notre Dame Dublin is an embassy for the University's undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff who come to Ireland for study, seminars, colloquia, or research.

Discover Notre Dame Mexico Discover Notre Dame Dublin

Notre Dame’s Department of Art, Art History, and Design and Participating Faculty Artists

The Department of Art, Art History & Design (AAHD) is a multidisciplinary department offering undergraduate and graduate programs in studio art, art history, and design. Under the guidance of a talented and diverse faculty, students acquire the technical skills necessary to work creatively, develop the ability to think critically, and cultivate the discipline to reflect thoughtfully on the world and our place in it.

Rodrigo Lara Zendejas is currently assistant professor and area head of ceramics in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design. Lara has had solo exhibitions at institutions across Mexico and the US, has two monographs of his work, and has received several awards, including first place in sculpture at the Premio Nacional de las Artes Visuales in Mexico in 2010.

Martina Lopez is professor and head of photography in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design. Her work has been widely published in influential photographic books, exhibited internationally, and held in major public and private collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C., and the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin.

Discover AAHDRodrigo Lara Zendejas Martina Lopez

Funding & Support

This is a partner program of the 2027 Notre Dame Arts Biennial, supported with funding from the Notre Dame Arts Initiative.

This project is also made possible with funding from Notre Dame Mexico, Notre Dame Dublin, and Notre Dame Global.