Love Sent Across Seas Exhibit

"'Love Sent Across Seas' is a free-to-attend two-week pop-up art exhibition that explores the experiences of Caribbean migrants and refugees to Philadelphia through the object of the shipping barrel. Each year immigrants send thousands of shipping barrels back to their families, packed full of clothing, medicines, shoes, trinkets, and other emblems of love that arrive in hometowns with great fanfare and expectation. The act of filling a barrel is a labor of love, a process that spans days and even months.

Even as migrants navigate the challenges of placemaking in a new social and political climate in Philadelphia, they also carry their home communities with them: packed in suitcases, purchased from specialty groceries in Philadelphia, or grown in their backyards. In this way, newcomers enrich Philadelphia with the tastes, smells, and vibrations of their diverse homelands---bringing the islands to the City of Brotherly Love in nibs of cacao, the richness of local coffee beans, bottles of craft rum, and the rhythm of steelpan and calypso."

The exhibit centers around 5 shipping barrels that have been transformed by Caribbean artists in Philadelphia, each harkening to a different UNESCO World Heritage Site in Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, and Barbados. The barrels will be accompanied with filmed oral histories showcasing stories and experiences of Caribbean migrants to Philadelphia, and some will also be accompanied by related artworks from local diaspora artists. There will be external programming leading up to the launch of the exhibit, including multiple film screenings and conversations with artists.

“Love Sent Across Seas” will premiere for two weeks in November and travel to sties in Philadelphia that are important to the Caribbean community. The project is a collaboration between the Caribbean Community in Philadelphia and the Center of Experimental Ethnography at the University of Pennsylvania.

Caribbean Community Association in Philadelphia

Caribbean Community in Philadelphia was established almost 11 years ago with Arts & Culture at the forefront of its operation. We now operate a year-round 8-part programming. We are fiscally sponsored by CultureTrust Greater Philadelphia for the last 7 years. Post COVID, we recognized the need for more Caribbean cultural art displays and exhibits around Philadelphia. This project was inspired by our painted fundraiser barrel – ‘Heart for Haiti.’

Center for Experimental Ethnography

The Center for Experimental Ethnography was established in 2018 at the University of Pennsylvania as a creative laboratory for critical multimodal research. A basic premise that underlies our efforts is the contention that an expanded and multi-modal definition of what counts as scholarship will lead to a more diverse university community in which artistic practice is a cornerstone not only for engaged and participatory democracy and social justice, but also for the reimagining and transformation of the university as a whole.

The Penn Museum

The Penn Museum’s mission is to be a center for inquiry and the ongoing exploration of humanity for our University of Pennsylvania, regional, national, and global communities, following ethical standards and practices.

Through conducting research, stewarding collections, creating learning opportunities, sharing stories, and creating experiences that expand access to archaeology and anthropology, the Museum builds empathy and connections across diverse cultures.

This project is being generously supported by CCP’s 2024 grant with Philadelphia Cultural Treasures with additional support from the Philadelphia Cultural Fund. Additional collaborators include The Center for Experimental Ethnography, The Penn Museum, The Barra Foundation, The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, William Penn Foundation, and Wyncote Foundation.

Host or Publisher Center for Experimental Ethnography