Exhibition Grand Opening October 25th, 2024

FREE and now open to the general public!

Open Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm

Historic 1904 Santa Cruz County Courthouse

21 East Court Street in Nogales, Arizona

Right in the heart of Nogales’s Morley Arts District…and just steps away from Arizona’s busiest border crossing into Mexico!

“Beyond Fronteras: Treasuring an Arizona Border Community’s Past and Future” is an exhibition featuring student artwork, poems, and other writings as well as content created by local historians and professional scholars, including undergraduate history students at the University of Arizona. Our online exhibition highlights the contributions of Santa Cruz County youth for this permanent museum presentation.

“Beyond Fronteras” the exhibition and overall multimedia project was curated and coordinated by Carlos Francisco Parra, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Arizona and a born-and-raised native of Ambos (both) Nogales.

“My History, Mi Comunidad” – Santa Cruz County Youth Gallery

The following poems, reflections, and artwork are from Santa Cruz County youth who responded to the Santa Cruz County School Superintendent’s invitation for young people to submit visual and literary forms of self-expression representing different aspects of our border community’s past and future. The County of Santa Cruz is profoundly grateful for the interest and energy shown by the youth from Pierson, Nogales, and Rio Rico High Schools who submitted their perspectives to our “My History, Mi Comunidad” initiative.

We hope our youths’ sharing of their life experiences – their concerns, hopes – can influence us and our community leaders to create a better space that more fully nurtures the aspirations of our young people and their families. Reflecting our binational, multicultural community’s composition, our youths’ artistic submissions are in English, Spanish, and Spanglish.

Artwork and reflective writings by youth at Mexicayotl Academy of Excellence in Nogales, Arizona, are on display at the “Beyond Fronteras” museum exhibition at the Historic 1904 County Courthouse.