A conversation with New York-based artist Inma Barrero on the exhibition of her installation, Be the Drop that Shapes the Wave, in Washington D.C.
Visit the IDB Art Gallery to experience Be the Drop that Shapes the Wave and reflect on the global water crisis at the exhibition Voices that Flow and Form the Wave. Until April 3rd, Monday to Friday from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm at IDB SA Art Gallery – 1300 New York Avenue, NW, Washington DC 20577 (13th street entrance)
Inma Barrero’s artistic workshop is nestled in the basement of a historic, retrofitted New York chapel. There, the Spanish-born sculptor creates, molds, paints, cooks, and assembles art pieces mostly made of ceramics and metals. Her movements barely disturb the calm silence that inhabits the narrow, pristine space.
Two years ago, however, the workshop became noisy and packed when two dozen children from Harlem and Yorkville joined her to work on Be the Drop that Shapes the Wave, a commissioned art installation from Fundación FEMSA, the non-profit arm of one of Mexico’s largest corporations. These boys and girls were part of a creative process designed to foster dialogue among social impact leaders and entrepreneurs and raise awareness on one of the world’s most crucial issues: access to safe water.
The art installation was later exhibited in New York City alongside the 2023 United Nations Water Conference. That year, it was estimated that two billion people—roughly a quarter of the world’s population—lacked access to safely managed drinking water, while about 3.5 billion people lacked access to safe sanitation.
Be the Drop that Shapes the Wave is once again on view, this time at the IDB Art Gallery in Washington D.C., until April 3rd, 2025, as part of the exhibition Voices that Flow and Form the Wave. Additionally to Inma Barrero’s sculpture, a series of photographs titled “Mujeres Agua Arriba” will showcase “the relationship between women and water in Latin American communities,” explains the IDB co-curator Mónica Medina-Porro. It is “a personal journey, inviting the viewer to reflect on the stories of these pioneering women and their experiences,” she adds.
Women and girls bear the brunt of the water crisis, according to a 2023 UNICEF-World Health Organization report. A barely visible aspect of gender inequality, fetching water is the responsibility of women and girls in 7 out of 10 households, forcing them to walk miles to carry heavy loads of the precious and vital liquid back home.
Be the Drop that Shapes the Wave adds a “compelling testament to the vital role of water as a life-giving element,” Medina-Porro says.
Its artistic process involved the Social Art for Behavior Change methodology developed by the One Drop Foundation, an organization launched by Le Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté. This approach is at the core of Lazos de Agua’s program, which aims to increase access to safe water for one million people in remote regions of Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Paraguay.
“I believe in art as a powerful spark for transformation to ignite a sustainable future. Art and culture not only beautify the world but also engage us in dialogue and inspire solutions that emerge from the voices of the community,” says Lorena Guillé-Laris, Director of Social Investment at FEMSA and board member of Fundación FEMSA. “They are bridges that bring us together, awaken awareness, and inspire us to build a more prosperous future for all.”
To produce and assemble Be the Drop that Shapes the Wave, this dialogue started with children who had never thought of water as a precious beverage, co-creating with the artist in New York and with dozens of Latin American leaders joining them from 15 countries through digital conversation.
Be the Drop that Shapes the Wave adds a compelling testament to the vital role of water as a life-giving element.
Monica Medina-Porro, IDB Co-Curator
JC Agid: Where does the concept of Be the Drop that Shapes the Wave come from?
Inma Barrero: I had worked on an installation called Praying Beads, inspired by the beads used for prayer in various religions. When Fundación FEMSA commissioned me to produce an artwork to contribute to their efforts in raising awareness, creating dialogue, and fostering innovation ahead of a United Nations conference on water, I thought about adapting this same concept. I wanted to use a similar bead idea to represent water—something like a prayer for water. We started with a few hundred drops, eventually growing into what it is today, a cascade of beads.
Your art is not just about aesthetics, is it?
Of course not.
What is it? An engine for action? You want people to interact with your work.
This whole exercise was both a creative expression and an experience for people. Be the Drop that Shapes the Wave is immersive—both in its creation in the studio and how it’s experienced in the gallery. People can touch it; they can play with it. Normally, ceramics aren’t materials you interact with in such a hands-on way. But, in this case, playing with the beads is integral. It was important to me to foster a sense of community through this interaction.
How did your conversation with NGOs, entrepreneurs, and children shape your artistic perspective and influence the work?
I had a clear vision of Be the Drop That Shapes the Wave’s potential size even before the whole process started. What surprised me was how the children embraced the topic of water access and responsibility—and how they participated in the studio. The questions they asked about water were eye-opening, and their curiosity as they worked with the clay was inspiring. It was insightful to see how much they absorbed and how much the creation process impacted them.
It was not just a workshop where children could put their hands on co-creating elements of an artwork. It was not a lecture where they just sat and focused on what someone was going to tell them about water issues. It was the mix between the two, and that seemed to be the novelty of this process.
They would have been bored out of their mind if they had to sit in a lecture and look at photos while being told how important the water is. But by being personally involved in transforming the clay into beads representing drops of water, they were learning by doing. They realized the importance of water while shaping a piece of clay that could be too dry or too wet, and this made the whole process very effective. It became natural for them to learn about water conservation, scarcity, and the societal impact of Climate change. It was far more effective than a lecture because it encouraged them to engage directly with the material and the topic.
Interestingly, you did not corner them in an uncomfortable space where you would challenge them to create from scratch. Instead, you guided them through the process of creating something together.
Exactly. Another thing that we did was to organize a little competition between groups of kids to create the most drops possible while being smart about what they were listening to. The whole exercise was absolutely wonderful. The competition was done in a very easy way because making the drops was simple enough that everyone was very good at it. They all wanted to show that they were totally immersed and participating in this project that was larger than them.
The process was the opposite of what we would usually see: a professor coming in, giving children a blank sheet of paper and crayons of colors, and he would ask them to draw something about water. ‘I’m going to challenge your ability to create,’ the professor would say. ‘Say something through your creativity about this topic, which you might not fully understand.’ You did the exact opposite. You did not challenge them; you did not threaten them. You took the time to have them co-create while discussing and understanding a global issue it from a different perspective.
These kids felt that they were a drop in a big project. They were not judged or asked to be creative in an uncomfortable way. They were enthusiastic because they felt that they were participating in something meaningful. It is important for me that the kids experience all kinds of art. Many of them had never touched clay, and a whole world just opened for them. We wanted them to understand that they were contributing to a larger project about water, a subject they might not typically think about in their daily lives. I mean, these kids just open the faucets at home, and water flows from them. They never questioned the scarcity and value of water. Yet, this experience made them aware of where their water comes from or how it is managed. Through this experience, they began to see its value and how it impacts communities.
