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SALT LAKE CITY — Many refugees and other newcomers to Utah may have entrepreneurial spirits, which the Salt Lake City-based International Rescue Committee aims to foster through a range of programs and initiatives.
Others, though, are more artistically inclined, and in a bid to help them tap their potential, the International Rescue Committee in Utah is teaming with the state-operated Chase Home Museum of Utah Folk Arts in curating an exhibit featuring their works.
“I just wanted to find more options for them,” said Jamaica Trinnaman, a small business counselor with the International Rescue Committee. The submission deadline has already passed and the exhibit at the Salt Lake folk arts museum — Piecing Together Home: New American Reflections on Home and Belonging — opens on Sept. 14, lasting until Nov. 30. The Chase Home Museum is located in Liberty Park.
The committee assists refugees, asylum-seekers and others from abroad resettling in the United States, and Trinnaman sees the new effort, an extension of its business-centered programs, as a means of helping those so inclined explore potential in the arts. Whether items on display will be for sale is up to the artists, she said, but she suspects most will be available to the public.
“I hope that they get an experience of being in the fine arts world and what that entails. I hope that they broaden their networks,” she said. Participation in such events fosters collaboration among those with similar interests, she added, and helps shed light on resources that can aid them in their pursuits and other art venues.
Notably, she also sees the planned exhibit as a means of expression for newcomers to Utah from abroad. Participation in such events and sharing personal experiences through art can serve as a moral boost. Submissions have come from artists with roots in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Art is “a language that often helps people communicate across barriers,” Trinnaman said. The exhibit will help communicate the “resettlement experience,” she said, and “let our community know a little bit more about the experience of these new Americans.”
Submissions, she said, have come from painters, photographers and sculptors, as well as poets and fashion designers.
“That sort of thing needs the right platform to find the right home, to find the right buyer, to even find the right audience to express what they want to express,” she said. She expects six to eight artists will participate and hopes to maintain the initiative in years to come.
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