Painting the Border: A Child’s Voice Exhibit

The youngest asylum seekers at our southern border have something to say about immigration policies that have left them homeless in one of the most dangerous cities in the world.  When the children artists painted their migrant experiences in 2019 for this exhibit, they were stranded in Ciudad Juárez, a city notorious for its  high murder rate, cartel violence, disappeared women, and kidnapping and extortion of migrants.

In 2018, to curb the high numbers of people seeking asylum at the northern Mexican border the Trump administration initiated the Migrant Protection Protocols. This policy remained in place under the Biden administration until 2021 and essentially shut down the U.S. asylum process.  In its wake, the Biden administration announced even tougher asylum policies that consequently increased the numbers of migrants stranded in Mexican border cities.  They can’t go home and they can’t move forward.  Among these travelers are thousands of youngsters, often traveling alone.

The Trump administration, 2025, has revived these protocols as part of his border crackdown and children, some  unaccompanied, and some with their families, are again stuck in limbo on the southern side of the US/Mexico border, waiting. 

The young artists who created the exhibit Painting the Border; A Child’s Voice answered  one question with their brush strokes: What do you think about the border? ¿Qué opinas de la frontera?  The images reveal a longing for home, journeying,  hopefulness,  and  border realities.

The paintings express experiences shared by hundreds of thousands of people affected by a worldwide human displacement crisis, forced to migrate by war, violence, climate change, abject poverty, and hope for a better life.  

The exhibit is a collaborative effort initiated by Skidmore Senior Teaching Professor Diana Barnes.  It was organized in Juárez by Organization for world Peace representative and children’s author Lucero de Alba, NGO volunteers from Seguimos Adelante, and El Paso artist Cimi Alvarado.

Painting the Border; A Child’s Voice, will hang in the Refuge Gallery through April 2026.  An opening reception by the Refuge Gallery and Diana Barnes will be held on February 23, 2026 from 6 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.