With the SoCal sun in full swing this spring, the Pitzer College Mounds have become a lively weekend hotspot. On Saturday, April 12, the Mounds buzzed with activity as students gathered to enjoy live music, an art exhibition, clothing vendors, printmaking and more.
On one side of the Mounds was the third biannual Mounds Bazaar, co-hosted by Thread5 and Pitzer EcoReps, which presented a student-run sustainable fashion market. Across the way was another pop-up art exhibition titled “(re)Location: Real and Imaginative Displacement.”
Despite differing in form, both events centered on themes of exchange — of clothing, culture and ideas — and turned the Mounds into a space for reflection and connection.
“It’s just a fun kind of gathering where we can also promote sustainable fashion,” Iza Harris PZ ’26, president of the 5Cs’ fashion club Thread5, said of this semester’s Bazaar.
5C students sat on the grass, spreading out an array of floral maxi skirts, vibrant T-shirts and bedazzled jeans as they waited for buyers to approach. There was also a donation box provided for those uninterested in selling.
Harris was happy to hold an inclusive event for everyone, not only those interested in fashion.
“I think it’s a way to introduce people to the club and the other stuff that we have going on,” she said. “People who … maybe aren’t necessarily that interested in learning about fashion, but just have stuff they want to sell. It’s not super deep but just a fun time.”
While the Mounds Bazaar brought students together through fashion and sustainability, just steps away was another expression of community and consciousness. Organized by the Pitzer College Art Galleries Fellows in partnership with the Racial Justice Initiative, “(re)Location: Real and Imaginative Displacement” uniquely displayed art inside two U-Haul trucks.
The use of U-Hauls was both a clever way to avoid a lack of gallery space for students in the spring semester, as most galleries are occupied by senior thesis exhibitions, while also conveying themes of movement and displacement.
The Fellows sourced art from Claremont Heritage, an organization documenting and preserving local history, the Honnold Library’s special collection and Claremont Canopy, a local organization supporting people who come to Claremont due to displacement from their home country. The exhibition also featured student submissions, including three zines created by 5C artists.
“We got community input, and then went out and did our own research in archives,” Arianne Ohara PZ ’25 explained, one of the Art Galleries Fellows and event organizers.
The Fellows worked with Lydia Henry and John Dominguez, two longtime residents of El Barrio (also known as Arbol Verde), who helped them find a direction for the exhibition.
“[El Barrio] is the neighborhood that’s South of [Claremont McKenna College (CMC)],” Ohara explained. “Longtime residents still call it El Barrio, and it’s a whole discussion of whether El Barrio is still a thing or not, because it’s been mostly bought out by CMC at this point.”
The story of El Barrio’s shifting identity speaks directly to the exhibition’s themes of movement and displacement.
A historically Mexican-American neighborhood developed in the early 20th century, El Barrio was once a vibrant community of laborers, families and students. However, starting in the 1960s, CMC began acquiring property in the area, displacing residents and erasing the neighborhood’s physical presence. The exhibition featured pieces that reflect this ongoing displacement.
Some pieces displayed included a Padua Hills Theater program for a comedy from 1958 called “Las Canacuas,” a planning map outlining land use in and around El Barrio from 1981. Another was a Syrian necklace gifted to Claremont Canopy by a family who fled Syria in 2012.
”I think it’s really important for Claremont students to acknowledge the past histories of this land and sort of know what came before colonization and development.”
The Fellows hope that visitors can learn from their exhibition and better understand the land they are living on.
“I think the main thing is that we want people to be more aware of the history of Claremont,” Evie Burrows White PZ ’26, another Fellow and event organizer, said. “I think we want people to be aware … that this is still ongoing.”
Besides examining the story of El Barrio, the sections also traced local histories of cultural and agricultural production, connections between Indigenous presence and the region’s natural landscape and the lasting impact of displacement, migration and community on Claremont today.
Annika Salomonsson PZ ’25, an attendee of the exhibit opening, emphasized the importance of learning these stories.
”I think it’s really important for Claremont students to acknowledge the past histories of this land and sort of know what came before colonization and development,” she said. “It’s really important for us to confront these pasts but also do it in a really open and accessible way.”
Ohara pointed out that the Claremont Colleges can become a small bubble for students, despite the closeness of Claremont Heritage, free archives available and the abundant history of the area.
“[It’s important] just like being more aware of the resources that are out there for you to learn about where you live,” she said.
While the U-Haul exhibition invited critical engagement with Claremont’s past, the Mounds Bazaar offered connection through exchange, encouraging students to reflect on their consumption, share resources and build community. In a single afternoon, the Pitzer Mounds became a space for creativity and reflection, reminding students that community can be both expressive and thoughtful.
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