MIGRATION/HOME

Migration/Home is a public artwork on the exterior of the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center that was timed to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Through the support of a grant from the Cohen Institute of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, I commissioned artwork from five members of Brattleboro’s resettled refugee community: Marwa Safa Azimi, Butunga Bibimba, Abdullah Elhan, Sean Kiziltan, and Zuhra Nadem.

The piece consists of seven 8’ panels drawing on a range of cultural and artistic traditions, including Persian miniature painting, calligraphy, Pashto poetry, Congolese embroidery, and abstract art. Each image functions as an individual work while contributing to a larger exploration of what it means to leave one’s home, build another, and carry memory, culture, language, and identity across borders.

The concepts of migration and home are especially complex when people are forced to flee a beloved homeland to reach safety, only to find new perils and persecution targeting immigrants in the country where they land. Through this work, these artists depict that complexity and show us what it looks like today to join the 250-year-old tradition of seeking home in the United States.