Student Immigration Experiences

This collection features stories and original artworks created by LEAP High School students from St. Paul, Minnesota. LEAP students are newly arrived refugees and immigrants who are learning English while earning a high school diploma. Most of the students came to the United States with little more than their stories, experiences and memories. In partnership with the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) and the Tenement Museum, students explored the many ways in which objects, including artworks, can tell stories. Guided by their teachers Jill Michell and Anne Lowe, the students shared their own stories of immigration through art-making and writing.

As one student wrote, "When I came to the United States I brought nothing with me because ... I had only three days to get ready. In my mind I have brought with me the farm, the animals, the river and the mountains. It’s peaceful and quiet."  From a favorite tree for hide and seek, to the patterns on a wall of a church; these works of art invoke the objects, places, people, and traditions that hold meaning for these students. 

The student's contributions are displayed here as a part of the Your Story, Our Story collection, and in an exhibition in the Community Commons Gallery at Mia, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, from June 15 through September.

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Your story

Help us tell a more complete story of American immigration and migration by contributing a family object story to the collection.