A WARM EMBRACE WELCOME BLANKET

An installation of hundreds of homemade blankets transforms the Ruby Commons into a space for community connection, mutual aid, and shared experience. The kaleidoscope of color, fabric, and memory connects the Skirball to a national network of refugee resettlement partners.

Since 2015, artist and activist Jayna Zweiman has been collecting hand-crafted blankets and donating them, along with personal notes from the crafters who make them, to thirty resettlement agencies working with United States Customs and Immigration Services to safely integrate immigrant families into new homes. More than six thousand people have contributed blankets to the effort—makers and Americans of every imaginable background and orientation, all connected by a single wish that everyone will find true welcome here.

“Each blanket is a gift, it should be hard to give away,” she says. By engaging the deeply personal work of creativity, fiber arts, and the maker’s own family stories, the project brings together a diverse community that uses design innovation to encourage social change and human connection.

In 2022, Skirball became the hub for the collection of the Welcome Blankets, hanging blankets throughout the campus, including in the Vote Center in Herscher Hall during the 2022 elections, hosting blanket-making workshops, and collecting hundreds of new blankets to add to the resettlement project.

Aside from traditional sewing and crochet, Welcome Blanket uses personal symbols to bring the blankets makers’ own family histories into these heirlooms. Photos of immigrant relatives dating back over a century, historic letters, logos, and iconography of faith and identity have all made their way into these personal, practical gifts. The result is a visual narrative of collaboration and perseverance.

Zweiman’s own family survived the Holocaust. Following her grandparents’ emigration to the United States, she grew up hearing stories of their experiences on two polarities: warm tales of their former lives abroad, and cold distance from what once was. It is tempting to think of the safe arrival of a family in the United States as the happy ending, but it’s also the beginning of a new story. Starting that story with a deeply personal welcome is a powerful way to create a space to discuss how the meaning of “home” can evolve.

“I see people trying to come here, and I feel a connection to my grandparents and the love I have for them,” said Zweiman. “I respect their ability to survive and rebuild while retaining their identities and connections to family.”

Love of learning is an essential value at the Skirball. It inspires school programs, adult classes, and internship opportunities for young leaders. The assistant editor of this year’s Oasis and the primary author of this Welcome Blanket feature is Annalisse Galaviz. A lifelong Los Angeles County resident, Annalisse is a recent graduate of Whittier College where she was the news editor of The Quaker Campus newspaper.