Opening Reception of “Sanctuary: Borders & Belonging in 2026″
Rochester Contemporary Art Center
137 East Ave.
Oct 2, 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm

This First Friday, RoCo is honored and moved to bring together a wide group of national and regional artists, creatives, and documentarians for “Sanctuary: Borders & Belonging in 2026.”

The exhibition includes many artists who amplify and celebrate immigrant voices, document criminalization and detention, and examine border politics and architecture. Artists include: Anaglog, Pamela Araya, Pamela Dodds, Annette Dragon, Jim Mott, Saman and Sasan Oskouei, Tom Policano, Julio Salgado, Cher Valentino, Arleene Correa Valencia, and Worldwide Documentaries.

The show also has two community-based components that will highlight over 150 additional people and artists sharing their own immigration stories.

Sanctuary aims to center the human lives behind political rhetoric, asking how belonging is made and denied, and how care and resilience persist. It will include testimony and creative resistance, while countering simplistic and divisive narratives, and insisting on dignity, with the goal of documenting our current moment and calling for human rights for all.

Learn more about this exhibition and the artists here.