Crossing Borders Revisited, An Exhibition

What makes a border? Geographic and cultural borders have come to define individual and group identity.  Crossing Borders features artists who investigate the experience of immigrating and the act of remembering; each artist utilizes their heritage, and their artistic practice as a way of keeping their family legacy relevant as the artist continues to make their own way in a contemporary time and place. This intergenerational exhibition looks at myriad ways in which residents have come to this region; some calling it home and some continuously travelling between places.

ArtsWestchester first debuted Crossing Borders in 2015, curated by Kathleen Reckling. The exhibition focused on ten first-generation artists and people who had newly become citizens to the United States. Almost a decade later, there have been paradigm shifts as well as perennial issues stemming from migration: walls were proposed, pandemics caused racial vilification, and identities were weaponized. In a new climate for immigration, the scope for this exhibition needed to be expanded – how do third-generation artists navigate heritage one step farther from its source? How do we express multiculturalism?

Reckling, ArtsWestchester’s COO, says about Crossing Borders: “[Art can] give voice the hundreds of thousands of individuals who try to make their place in a different country. While each artist has their own unique story, the themes expressed in their work transcend the individual and speaks to a universal experience of remembering where we came from while navigating new territory and customs. Taken together, these works are a reminder that tradition and culture are not static. Rather, they are ever evolving and ever adapting.”