As Erie County marks the 250th anniversary of American independence, a new multi-venue exhibition asks what that founding promise has meant – and continues to mean – for new American artists in our region. “Between Here and Elsewhere: A Portrait of the New American Experience” opens this summer across five venues in Erie County, presenting work by contemporary artists whose lives and practices are shaped by the experience of migration.

The exhibition features 20 artists presented across five venues: 1020 Collective, Brown Girl Penning, the Erie Art Museum, Erie Arts and Culture, and PennWest Edinboro. The featured artists are immigrants, refugees, recent citizens and their children from Erie County and the broader region. Through the stories told in their work, “Between Here and Elsewhere” invites visitors to consider how migration continues to shape a more creative, connected, compassionate and vibrant Erie County. Also on view at the Erie County Public Library is a selection of art from the library’s archives celebrating local history, located adjacent to the Heritage Room.

“In organizing this exhibition as part of Erie County’s America250 celebration, we invite our neighbors to reflect on the role of immigrant populations in building and shaping our community,” said Maria Ferguson, exhibition organizer and guest curator of the installation at the Erie Art Museum. “Besides celebrating the individual artists, we hope that this visibility will encourage collaboration among cultural, civic and municipal partners to ensure that new American communities have the continued support necessary to thrive in Erie County.”

Erie County has been shaped by immigration since its founding in 1800, welcoming successive waves of arrivals – from early settlers from Germany, Ireland, Italy and Poland to more recent neighbors from Bhutan, Syria, Iraq, Mexico, Afghanistan, China, Ukraine, and many other parts of the world. As the United States observes the semiquincentennial of the Declaration of Independence, the exhibition situates that history in the present, framing the artists’ work through the nation's founding ideals of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

“Between Here and Elsewhere: A Portrait of the New American Experience” was organized by Maria Ferguson, director of the Bruce Gallery at PennWest Edinboro, in partnership with the 1020 Collective, Brown Girl Penning, Erie Art Museum, Erie Arts and Culture, and with support from Erie County.