The 1920 Homelands Exhibition in Rochester
About the Homelands Exhibition
Rochester school pupils created posters for the exhibition. Thirty examples are documented in the Gallery's scrapbooks.
The Gallery has a long history of outreach to Rochester's ethnic communities. In 1920, inspired by successful events in Buffalo & Albany, the Gallery collaborated with the Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Education and the city administration in organizing a 10-day exhibition celebrating the arts & culture of immigrant citizens.
The Rochester Homelands Exhibiton was part of a national response to the "red scares" after World War I—encouraging familiarity with the traditional arts and crafts of the cultures of immigrants to the US, and welcoming ethnic newcomers to the Rochester community. The exhibition, held on the grounds of Exposition Park, was hugely successful, attracting a total of 160,000 visitors.
In succeeding years, the Gallery mounted exhibitions of Native American art as well as art from particular nations; today the Gallery holds several family days throughout the year celebrating the contributions of Rochester's ethnic communities.
Documents About the Homelands Exhibition
- Original Documents from the Memorial Art Gallery Archives
- Transcriptions of Headlines from Accounts in Rochester Papers
- Bob Marcotte August 21, 2006 Article (Courtesy of the Democrat & Chronicle)
Images from the Homelands Exhibition
77 images from the Art section of the Homelands Exhibition have been digitized from the Memorial Art Gallery's Homelands scrapbooks, suitable for printing out on overhead transparencies. An additional 45 images from the Homelands Exhibition are included in the Rochester Images Project database. Enter "Homelands" into the search box to view these images.
