Cascadia College hosted a reception to kick off an art exhibit titled “Border Doors” on Feb. 7 in Mobius Hall. Students, artists, families, and social justice organizations used full-size doors as their canvas to tell their personal immigration stories. The installation consists of 30 doors, 12 of which were created by local individuals or community groups, and are making their debut at Cascadia.

“We crossed those freeways. We climbed that wall. We hid in fear.” Bothell resident Maria Cisneros recalls her first journey from Mexico to the United States when she was a teenager. She relived it again with her seven-year-old son as they painted a full-size door for an art exhibit.

“We hope this helps to connect our community and our students, and bring people together to discuss what is a timely, serious, and evolving topic,” says Sara Gómez Taylor, the outreach specialist at Cascadia College. “We invited people on campus and in the community to share their personal immigration journeys with us.”

Spoken word poet Roberto Carlos Ascalon performed original work. Many of the contributing artists attended the event.

“This is a very powerful exhibit and is highly personal to me,” said Jesús Pérez, PhD, Cascadia faculty member who, in partnership with his brother Claudio Pérez, brought 18 of the doors to Cascadia from a 2016 exhibit in New Mexico.

The Border Doors exhibit is part of a weeklong educational series, Human Arts Awareness Week, focusing on human migration and immigration. The exhibit will run through Feb. 17.