RIHS calls for handmade blankets to be displayed at RI museum
WOONSOCKET, R.I. (WLNE) — The Rhode Island Historical Society’s Museum of Work and Culture is announcing their collection of handmade blankets for an upcoming exhibit — Welcome Blanket.
Los-Angeles based artist and Brown University graduate, Jayna Zweiman, started Welcome Blanket in 2017 as a way of redefining the proposed border wall with Mexico, by knitting 2,000 miles of yarn into blankets to give to people as a warm welcome to our nation.
The Museum of Work and Culture will be staging its own Welcome Blanket Exhibit in Sept. 2024.
Participants will be handmaking a 40-inch by 40-inch washable blanket and write a welcome note, highlighting the importance of their family’s relocation or immigration.
The museum will be accepting blankets from Jan. 8 until May 15, 2024. Blankets can be brought to any Rhode Island Historical Society location, including the Museum of Work and Culture in Woonsocket, as well as the Aldrich House and John Brown House Museum in Providence.
RIHS shared that all blankets and notes will be gifted to Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island as a warm welcome to new refugees as they enter the United States.
