A new exhibit at the Arizona History Museum, 949 E. Second St., offers a warm welcome to asylum seekers in the form of “welcoming quilts.”
The exhibit features a selection of quilts created by children through the Casa Alitas Welcome Center, a humanitarian aid group for migrants, in collaboration with the Arizona Historical Society.
The children, recent arrivals from Central America who stayed at Casa Alitas, conveyed their thoughts and experiences through fabric squares, offering a look at migration through innocent eyes. These squares were then carefully sewn together to make the quilts, providing a representation of the asylum seekers’ shared journey and resilience.
Each quilt tells a different story about what migrants miss about their home countries and how they try to recreate those qualities in their new homes.
“Welcoming Quilts” opens Friday, May 19, at the Arizona History Museum and runs through April 2024.