For young people with few English skills, bright fabric panels speak every language. Students in a Winter Term art course created five quilted banners to hang in the library of a Greensboro school for children new to the United States – and the Elon class unveiled its work in a Feb. 20 presentation.
The course, “Story Magic: When Words Ignite Images,” required the college students to cut and dye their own textiles and fabrics for use in the banners. Led by adjunct professor Peg Gignoux, Elon students visited the school and its students in January, where the children, in some instances able to share no more than “hello,” got a preview of what would eventually decorate their building.
Now complete, the five banners include the word “welcome” translated into more than 100 languages and tell a “Welcome” story. “A lot of kids come from really bad situations,” said Lauren Smith, a sophomore biology major from Morrisville, N.C. “It’s good to do something that says, ‘welcome, we’re glad you’re here.’”
The Newcomers School currently enrolls more than 250 children between the third and 12th grades. Students can stay up to one year before transferring to the assigned schools in their given communities. Giving children a full year in the school eases the trauma of moving from a refugee camp or violence-riddled nation to a new home in a new country, school leaders said.
“Any time we have folks who take an interest in our students, we’re touched by it,” said Principal Jake Henry.” Looking at the work and how it will connect with our students in their studies, that makes it doubly special.
“So many of our kids, as part of their culture and heritage, textiles are so important.”
Gignoux and a friend co-wrote the story, “Welcome,” on which the banners are based. The main character in all five panels is a feather that travels throughout the world to lands that, according to Gignoux, represent the same places from which the Newcomers School students once lived.
“I knew they’d love it,” Gignoux said. “This is a place of gratitude, and you can feel the enthusiasm, of being here and for being with each other. I thought they’d like something bright and vibrant. And I think it’s fantastic for Elon students to see them.”
Students in the course said they have come to appreciate other lessons from the course.
“I’ve learned the importance of taking the time to do something … of making something for yourself,” Raafe Purnsley, a freshman biology major from Durham, N.C., said in January. “There’s so much we’ve lost from previous generations who made their own stuff.
“We did this, and it will be here for a while for the kids to enjoy.”