By Episcopal News Staff

Publication of the Diocese of Los Angeles

The Diocese of Los Angeles is hosting an exhibition of art that will be on display and for sale until June 20 — World Refugee Day – to benefit Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Service, the diocese’s immigration and refugee ministry.

The exhibit opens on Saturday, April 15, World Art Day, at an evening event called “Crossings: An Evening of Paintings of the Refugee Journey and Storytelling,” at St. Paul’s Commons, the ministry and administrative hub of the diocese, at 840 Echo Park Avenue, Los Angeles.

The evening will feature pastel paintings by Katherine Gould, whose work has been celebrated in numerous exhibitions and private collections throughout the United States. In addition to the art exhibit, for which refugees will serve as docents, the program will feature music by a jazz trio, storytelling by refugees, and an interactive experience that will invite attendees to create their own poetry.

“As humans we destroy not only each other but also our earth,” said Gould. “Yet nature is resilient, just as the will to survive keeps the refugee traveling in spite of persecution and extraordinary losses. Pastel is the ideal medium to capture the transient lives of the refugee seen against the transient beauty of nature even in the darkest of times.”

“Refugee journeys reflect the strength, perseverance, and beauty of those who make them,” said Troy Elder, IRIS’s executive director. “And it is sometimes only through art that their truths are wholly revealed.”

Proceeds from ticket sales for the event and sales of Gould’s art during the evening and subsequent exhibition will benefit IRIS’s ongoing refugee resettlement work. For more information about the event and to purchase tickets, click here.