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. Five artists provided 4 – 6 week workshops that helped these newest residents develop language, social and work skills while having an opportunity for artistic expression. In turn, the Paramount and the teachers learned a great deal about meeting the artistic needs of a broad and diverse community

Open House: Thursday, June 5 from 5:00 – 8:00 PM – light refreshments will be served.

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: appliqué, fabric construction, weaving, ceramics, painting and drawing. 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.