(piano music) - Our team generally selects exhibits based on what we know about what people here like to see.

And we know there is a major quilting subculture here, a lot of fiber artists in the community who especially appreciate the art form of modern quilts.

And this exhibit came to our attention and we thought this is a perfect one to have here because Fargo Moorhead is a major refugee resettlement community.

And so many people today seem to misunderstand what is a refugee and what is the situation worldwide regarding people who are literally forced to flee for their lives.

And I think this exhibition very beautifully and movingly illustrates that particular definition of refugee.

- I think of refugees who have fled the border of their country, have applied for asylum, have been granted permission, but in the general population, a refugee is someone that is fleeing from their home.

Political refugees are really the ones that are gaining acceptance around the world.

We can argue for that.

But our new reality is that we see economic refugees and we see natural disaster refugees.

Politically, they don't fit that definition, which just creates more tragedy for them.

- There are 36 in this collection, which is a large collection of quilts and the quilters come from all over the world.

13 of them come from different countries, including Germany, the UK, Ireland, Australia, even Korea, Japan, and the rest come from the United States, different states throughout the country.

The quilts really show a wide range of refugee situations throughout the world and throughout history.

I think the main thing is to draw some sympathy for the refugee crisis globally, and also to educate people.

So many of the artist's statements are about this realization about what's going on in the world and providing a lot of great information about it.

A lot of the exhibit appears to be probably that they were made during the Syrian refugee crisis 'cause there's a lot of reference to that, but there are also references to other refugee conflicts throughout the world and in different time periods.

- There's a quilt here in this display that lists dates and names and how that particular asylum seeker lost their life.

And it's just for like a 10 day period of time.

There's another one of a small child that died on a trip across the Mediterranean.

We saw that image on the news a few years ago that he drowned.

I'm looking at all of these gorgeous quilts and it's just making me recall so many stories that I've been by the families that I've met and places that I've been in and things that I've seen.

This is just a powerful, powerful exhibit.

I imagine somebody sitting in every stitch brings back a memory of the trauma.

Some of the artists are spouses of people that were refugees or grandchildren of people that were refugees.

And it's them conveying the stories that they've been told into a medium that can speak to those of us that didn't have the opportunity to hear that story.

The colors are gorgeous.

That balance is perfect.

And then you read deeper back into it and see that there's a dark story in here.

- I have walked through a number of times.

I've been struck by firs, the creativity of the medium, how people can make a quilt into a book and into a collection of dolls mounted on the wall.

I'm also struck by the color orange, which is very vivid throughout the exhibit.

And it is the color of the life jackets that many refugees have had to use to escape their countries of origin.

And that have been found along the shores of different countries that they seek refuge in.

And it has a sense of igniting or maybe a flame of awareness throughout the exhibit that I think is actually very intentional in terms of what the curator maybe have been going for.

- My hope is that people will come and see this and study it and read the stories behind it.

Or if you're not able to come, there's some really wonderful videos online that you can watch and that it would just open their heart to people who really have and are currently experiencing the need to flee for their lives and hopefully move them to reach out and do what they can to help people transition into a prosperous, peaceful existence anywhere.

- People who see this exhibit come to a better understanding of what's going on worldwide, and also seem to have a greater sympathy for refugees.

- I'm having a hard time not crying.

The imagery is just incredible, the imagination and how those stories are being told.

(piano music) - [Narrator] Funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008, and by the members of Prairie Public.