"Uncaged Art" from previously detained migrant children on display in Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS) -- When children create art, they can reveal their true selves, and their dreams for the future. That was crucial for hundreds of migrant children who spent month after month in a Texas detention center.
In an exhibit of their work, called "Uncaged Art," they express their hope and their pride.
Their resilient works of art were born of sadness while they stayed at the Tornillo immigrant detention center in El Paso, Texas, in 2018 and 2019. The artists, migrant children ages 13 to 17, were separated from their families and housed for nearly a year in the makeshift tent city.
Now the exhibit of their art is traveling through churches, schools, libraries and more in the Chicago area, including Saint Martin's Episcopal Church in the Austin neighborhood.
"We're trying to reach folks though the media of art, and asking them to imagine what they would feel like if they were behind these walls; how they would feel if they had been detained separate from family, and put behind these walls, simply because of immigration status," said Rev. Sandra Castillo, with the Sanctuary Task Force at the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago.
A group of teachers visited the children at the Tornillo detention center, and asked if they would use art to express the pride they had in their native countries.
"They were given the charge create art, signs of hopes, give them something positive to look to, something beyond being in detention," said Fr. Christopher Griffin, vicar at St. Martin's and canon for community partnerships at St. James Cathedral in River North.
Castillo said when the detention center was closed, crews began throwing away the children's art.
"Father Garcia, a local Roman Catholic priest, discovered that they were throwing away the art, and he was able to rescue 29 pieces of art," she said.
Griffin said the young artists created beauty and got something beautiful in return – a voice.
"You create narratives through art, through colors, and you're able to tell something that's often too deep for words," Griffin said. "They need people to hear them, see them, and work together to liberate all of them."
It's all very personal for Castillo, who has volunteered four separate times at Texas family detention centers.
"When I see this artwork, I think about those children; how they reacted to being confined in this penal-type of system," she said. "It really, really touches me, and it really motivates me to see this artwork tour as far as possible."
The Uncaged Art exhibit now traveling in Chicago includes photos of the children's artwork. The originals are being kept safe at University of Texas at El Paso.
The originals are being kept safe at the university.