New Americans Museum

For centuries, America has beckoned to immigrants the world over. With courage and determination they have traveled thousands of miles to rejoin loved ones, for economic opportunity, or simply to know freedom.

As a nation of immigrants, America has benefited from an infusion of talents and skills that are the foundations of many rich traditions. In the civic, economic, and artistic arenas, yesterday’s newcomer is tomorrow’s pioneer in a continuing process that defines us to this day.

The preservation and presentation of the immigrant experience in the United States is a central commitment of the New Americans Museum’s mission. We are dedicated to insuring that individual stories are safeguarded in the Family Histories Essays and Oral and Visual Histories archives as enduring testaments to our immigrant roots as a culture and a nation.

Current & Upcoming Exhibitions

[A] Portrait of People in Motion is a community focused exhibition that honors migration stories of Americans, both new and long-established culminating in a new installation at New Americans Museum (NAM). Over the course the yearlong residency NAM Artist-in-Residence Kerianne Quick and NAM invited the residents of San Diego to share meaningful objects related to their story. The resulting exhibition; paints a portrait of our city through objects brought on – or left behind during – an international or domestic migration journey. Quick utilized digital photography, 3D scanning, and 3D printing technology to digitally record and re-create a translucent version of these items of deep significance. These re-creations will be on display along with audio recordings of each individual participant’s story.

The exhibition tells stories through four themes:

Objects Carried documents objects brought on a migration journey and the first-hand story of the person who carried it.

Objects Remembered documents the stories of the things left behind.

Objects of History documents objects carried on a migration journey by a relative, and the second or third-hand stories of ancestors who experienced a migration journey.

Future Objects answers the question “If you had to leave right now, what would you take on your way out the door?”

Kerianne Quick is an internationally recognized artist and crafts person, and Assistant Professor of Art at San Diego State University. @materialsmithing #aportraitofpeopleinmotion

On View through December 15

https://www.facebook.com/events/2273113222807776/