CURRENT EXHIBITIONS:

Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles (Oct 18-Dec 31)

Woven into the fabric of our country is a fundamental idea: our diversity, multiple perspectives, and personal stories make the United States great. In our enduring commitment to “welcome the stranger,” the Skirball Cultural Center is honored to collect and display blankets submitted to artist and activist Jayna Zweiman’s national Welcome Blanket project.

Welcome Blanket invites knitters, quilters, and other handcraft makers to create blankets and write personal notes for new refugees arriving to the US. Through December 31, 2022, the Skirball will collect, catalogue, and present a display of donated blankets on site. After the installation ends, more than thirty partner refugee resettlement groups will then present these tangible gifts of welcome to our newest neighbors.

More info here.

Museum of Design Atlanta (Ongoing)

MODA is hosting the Welcome Blanket Exhibition … AGAIN! The Museum of Design Atlanta was the second-ever host of Welcome Blanket, back in 2018. We were thrilled to be part of Betsy Greer’s “Making Change: the Art and Craft of Activism.” MODA is a gem of a place. We aren’t the only ones who think so.

Here's the link to MODA’s first Welcome Blanket Exhibition Page from 2018. We also loved their blog entry on the Welcome Blanket experience.

Come visit, and be part of the process! Here's the link MODA’s main page so you can plan your visit.

Migration stories are fundamentally relatable human stories; we all come from somewhere. Yet the abstraction of immigration, from sweeping government policies to the use of language by the media, perpetuates “otherness.” Welcome Blanket is a platform for engagement that transforms this abstraction into a tangible, crowd-sourced, inclusive, artistic action. Participants use their heads, hearts, hands, and histories to craft the United States they wish to see.
Welcome Blanket was initially a response to the proposed 2000-mile border wall between Mexico and the United States. The project reimagined the length of exclusion as 2000 miles of yarn to make individual welcome blankets for refugees coming to the United States. Handcraft makers who knit, sew, quilt, crochet, weave, felt, etc., use any textile to make 40-inch x 40-inch blankets that are easy to care for and hard to give away. They include stories important to their families about immigration, migration, or relocation, creating symbolic and practical gifts of welcome for new refugees. These gifts are collected, cataloged, and displayed at art and cultural institutions. During these exhibits, the message of welcome is amplified through hosting craft circles, performances, discussions, forums, and legal assistance for immigrants. Post-show, our 30+ partner refugee resettlement groups present these gifts to our newest neighbors. Since 2017, over 6500 have been made and distributed.
After reaching our initial goal of 2000 miles of yarn, resulting in 3400 blankets, the impact is clear: New refugees and other immigrants are seen— and welcomed in their new home. And the makers, too, reflect the diversity of this country: the youngest maker is 4 and the oldest 104; there are evangelical Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists; and there are makers with a wide range of political leanings. Many participants themselves share migration stories, from being descendants of slaves to displaced Native Americans, from recent refugees to descendants of the Mayflower.
Welcome Blanket has now set a new goal— to create an enduring project as a community of connection. Our network is creating a new American tradition of welcome, reclaiming our personal and human stories to celebrate the rich tapestry of American migration.
Make a Welcome Blanket, share your story, come together and craft. Join us.
For more information: Welcomeblanket.org and @welcomeblanket
Jayna Zweiman is an architecturally-trained multidisciplinary artist and designer. Her independent practice combines architecture, art, craft, and new media to focus on experiences that overlap physical, virtual, and conceptual spaces.
Perhaps best known as the co-creator and co-founder of Pussyhat Project, an international network and movement of women’s rights supporters, Zweiman has become a leading advocate of utilizing design innovation to enact social change. Pussyhat Project became a worldwide phenomenon at the 2017 Women’s Marches with one of the largest crowd-sourced art advocacy projects ever. She is also the creator and founder of Welcome Blanket, a reconceptualization of the 2000-mile length of the proposed border wall as 2000-mile length of yarn to make individual welcome blankets for new immigrants coming to the United States.
Zweiman’s work has been exhibited and published internationally. Her work has been nominated for the Beazley Design of the Year by the Design Museum in London, acquired by the Victoria & Albert Museum, and awarded the first ever Brand of the Year by the School of Visual Arts. Zweiman was awarded in 2017 as one of “The 25 People Who Defined Visual Culture” by Artsy.
Jayna earned her AB from Brown University with concentrations in visual arts and economics, and her Master in Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She lives and works in Los Angeles.

Want to see the works at Welcome Blanket Helms? Here’s our archive.

Welcome Blanket at Helms is made possible by:

PAST EXHIBITIONS

MODA 2021-2022:

Blankets gifted to refugee organizations in Clarkston, GA. These organizations include: Refuge Coffee, Jolly Avenue Garden (a project of Friends of Refugees)

Smart Museum of Art, 2017

The Smart Museum of Art at University of Chicago was Welcome Blanket’s inaugural host. We are thankful for all of the support, thoughtfulness and creativity the Smart staff and volunteers have brought to the project. For more about Welcome Blanket at the Smart, here is the Museum’s page and press release.

Here are some images of the gallery exhibition:

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What makes Welcome Blanket so special? The people who touch it and make it happen. Young and old, experienced and novice crafters, people of all backgrounds came together to make a bold statement of welcome. Here are some images of people and programs in and about the exhibition:

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As part of the Smart Museum programming, Jayna Zweiman was invited to have a conversation with Judy Chicago that was moderated by Alison Gass, Director of the Smart.

Want to check out the Welcome Blankets delivered to the Smart? Check them out:

MODA, 2018

The Museum of Design Atlanta was the second host of Welcome Blanket. We were thrilled to be part of Betsy Greer’s “Making Change: the Art and Craft of Activism.” MODA is a gem of a place. We aren’t the only ones who think so.

Here's the link to MODA’s Welcome Blanket Exhibition Page. We also loved their blog entry on the Welcome Blanket experience.

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Fuller Craft Museum, 2019

Fuller Craft was the third host of Welcome Blanket. The Fuller had representation from all 50 states!

Here’s the exhibition announcement from the Fuller:

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Build Peace Borderlands, 2019

Jayna Zweiman was an artist-in-residence at the Build Peace Conference in Sand Diego and Tijuana. It was an opportunity to connect with peace builders and people seeking asylum.

Interwoven: Craft, Story, Immigration, 2019

In September 2019, Welcome Blanket Brookline organized a multi-day immigration celebration: “Interwoven: Craft, Story, Immigration.”

Los Feliz Food and Art Festival, Los Angeles, 2019

Miry’s List Inaugural New Arrivals Festival, 2018

Casa Michoacán, 2018
University of Chicago Laboratory School, 2018

Teachers took on Welcome Blanket and incorporated the project as part of a learning module about the history of craft and self portraiture. They hosted a satellite exhibition of Welcome Blankets from the Smart Museum and added their gorgeous work to create something entirely their own.

MODA, 2021 (happening NOW!)

LAX, 2022 (upcoming)

After these shows close, they are distributed to refugee resettlement agencies who then gifts them to our newest neighbors. For more, check out Where do the Welcome Blankets go?