“Hands Across the World: The Journey Continues” Exhibit at Stearns History Museum, 235-33rd Avenue South, St. Cloud, MN  56301

The art and craft produced in workshops held at Hands Across the World and the Paramount Visual Arts Center will be exhibited in the hall gallery at the Stearns History Museum, MN, April 6 through May 25, 2015

Reception Sunday, April 12, 2015 from 1 – 3 p.m. Free Admission.

The Paramount’s Education Outreach program and Visual Art Center collaborated with Hands Across the World, a local agency serving the needs of refugees new to the area. Four artists provided 4 – 6 week workshops that helped these newest residents develop language, social and work skills while having an opportunity for artistic expression and new manual skills. In turn, the Paramount and the teachers learned a great deal about meeting the artistic needs of a broad and diverse community. These sessions occurred in the winter of 2014.

A reception will be held at the museum on April 12, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Refreshments will be served including sambusas, a food from Somalia. Demonstrations of cultural activities include:

• Sakina Abukar doing henna designs

• Jeri Olson-McCoy leading a hands-on weaving session

The exhibit serves the people, the process and the product of these classes while celebrating the power of the arts to address social change. On view will be artwork in the following media: fabric construction, weaving, ceramics, and mosaic art. Enhancing the display of art and craft will be photographs and a series of stories gathered from the recent immigrants. These moving stories illustrate the dramatic and often horrific circumstances that these people have survived. Viewers are invited to take time to read their stories and view their work while they imagine their way into the classes that not only created the items but also wove these artists together.