William Johnston Building Gallery

On display August 25 – September 22

The William Johnston Building (WJB) Gallery is honored to host Journey of Memories, an exhibition celebrating the creativity and resilience of refugee women from Afghanistan, Syria, Congo, and Sudan.

Journey of Memories is a heartfelt tribute to the cherished moments and cultural treasures these women carried as they rebuilt their lives in Hartford, Connecticut. Though unable to bring all of their belongings, they preserved the essence of their experiences through evocative, handcrafted artworks. Each piece serves as a window into the vibrant tapestry of their past: every stitch and brushstroke embodies treasured memories of home, family, and community.

The exhibition highlights the power of art as a medium for storytelling and expression, emphasizing memory as a vital part of identity and heritage. By sharing their stories through art, these women honor their past while inspiring us to appreciate the beauty and resilience of immigrant communities worldwide.

The Journey of Memories project was hosted by Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS) in partnership with the Dodd Center for Human Rights at the University of Connecticut, Trinity College, and Heartbeat Ensemble. The project was guided by the compassionate leadership of Neda Izadi and Isabella Daou, with support from Trinity College students.

Since its creation, Journey of Memories has toured widely in Connecticut, with exhibitions at Connecticut College, Trinity College, Heartbeat Ensemble, Hartford Public Library, and Otis Library, reaching diverse audiences before arriving at Florida State University.

Special Event – September 15th
A special event will be held on September 15th at 6:30 PM at the WJB Gallery, featuring guest speakers:

• Terry Coonan, Associate Professor and Executive Director of the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights at FSU
• Neda Izadi, Artistic Director of Journey of Memories

This event highlights the importance of amplifying women’s voices and the experiences of forced migration through the transformative power of art.

About the Artists and Leaders

• Isabella Daou, former Manager of Education Services for IRIS in Hartford, designs and leads educational programming for youth and adults, including ESOL courses, tutoring, college preparation, and summer initiatives. She earned her B.A. in Political Science and Human Rights at UConn in 2018, specializing in migration studies while studying in Morocco. Of Lebanese-Dutch heritage, she has worked with refugee and immigrant communities in Lebanon, the Netherlands, and the United States.
• Neda Izadi is an Iranian artist and Ph.D. student in Art Education at Florida State University. With a background in puppetry and an MFA in Dramatic Arts from the University of Connecticut (2020), her artistic practice reflects human rights issues, especially those related to immigrant experiences.

Collaborators

• Janet Bauer, Ph.D. (Anthropology, Stanford University), has written extensively on immigrant communities in Greater Hartford and internationally, and has served on Hartford’s Commission on Refugee and Immigrant Affairs since 2014.
• Zeynep Su Oğuzer, a sophomore double major in Human Rights and Psychology with minors in Urban Studies and Philosophy.
• Yael Rubin, a sophomore majoring in Human Rights.
• Roo Xing, a junior majoring in Psychology and Studio Art, is creating an e-book featuring the art and memory objects from this project.

Zeynep, Yael, and Roo played an important role in helping participating women craft their stories and transform them into memory projects.

 

 

 

Vibrant colors and lively images of animals, plants, and anthropomorphic beings, alongside geometric motifs, embellish the textiles of Woven Together. For six millennia, the peoples of the South American Andes and Pacific Coast have cultivated a rich and diverse tradition in textile arts. Woven Together exhibits pieces from groups such as the Wari, Nasca, and Paracas cultures, dating from 800 BCE to around the time of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532 CE. Weaving remains integral to life in this region, and Woven Together offers an opportunity to view Andean textiles produced between the ninth century BCE and the early sixteenth century CE.

Peru’s arid Pacific coast supported the preservation of cotton and camelid fiber textiles; the pieces of Woven Together were originally part of funerary bundles wrapped around the mummified deceased. Adorned with cosmologically potent motifs, these textiles accompanied the dead as they became animated ancestors of living communities.