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Immigration Art Exhibit opens March 1 at UMass Medical School

  Arc of Triumph by Bayda Asbridge
 

Arc of Triumph
by Bayda Asbridge

The UMass Medical School International Committee will unveil a new art exhibit on campus on Friday, March 1. The Immigration Art Exhibit is part of the UMass Immigrant Series through which events that are designed to generate awareness about immigrant experiences and the value of a diverse workforce are offered.

The UMass Immigrant Stories series debuted in November when Matilde Castiel, MD, associate professor of medicine, and Naheed Usmani, MD, professor of pediatrics, spoke at a campus forum in which they discussed the barriers and challenges they faced in coming to the United States as immigrants. Approximately 15 percent of the school’s employees and students were born outside of the United States.

The art exhibit was the idea of Bayda Asbridge, an Arabic-English interpreter at UMass Memorial Medical Center, who serves on the UMass Medical School International Committee and is also an art curator. Asbridge is among 12 featured artists who have put immigration at the center of their pieces.

A reception will begin in the medical school lobby at 11:30 a.m. on March 1, and artists will be on hand to answer questions about their pieces through 1:30 p.m. The exhibit will later be moved to the Lamar Soutter Library where it will be on display throughout March. The exhibit is sponsored by the UMMS Diversity & Inclusion Office.

Related story on UMassMedNow:
In their own words: Matilde Castiel, Naheed Usmani share personal immigration stories