The Threads of Identity: A Showcase of UConn’s Cultural Centers & Programs exhibition is open in Homer Babbige Library, celebrating the work of all seven cultural centers and promoting the inclusion they foster at UConn.

The cultural centers provide spaces and opportunities to establish a foundation for meaningful engagement across UConn’s diverse community. Each center represents a different perspective, reflected through their uniquely cultivated displays in the Norman D. Stevens Gallery on the Plaza. Together, the items in the exhibition highlight the resources, community building, and belonging these centers foster.

Over months of curation and preparation, the library staff and cultural organizations have collaborated to produce an exhibition that highlights the individuality and history of what these centers have to offer students.

“Students need to be able to have that security in who they are and are able to see that represented with these cultural centers,” says Ellen Silbermann, the recruitment and staff programs coordinator at the UConn Library. “It’s important that, being away from home, they have this connection and feel a part of their culture as well as the University.”

While each cultural center brings a unique perspective and resources to the community, they are united on the shared goal of connecting the community and promoting a sense of belonging.

“We want to ensure people know that their experiences here are valid, and we are here to make sure that people feel like the belong and are seen,” says Merz Lim, the director of the Asian American Cultural Center.

In their display, the Asian American Cultural Center curated their exhibit to convey that the work they do is led by students.

“We took things that our students have done, that students have made, and that students have given us, and used these presents and artifacts at the center of our work,” says Lim. “The work we have done would not exist without our students demanding and taking up space to express their need for belonging, so that is what we tried to convey.”

In the Middle Eastern Cultural Programs’ display, they chose to represent culture through handmade puppets based on traditional Persian characters.

“Being able to take something from our own identity to somewhere where everybody passes by, and not necessarily just people from the culture centers, and to bring that to so many other students is wonderful,” says Ali Etesamifar, the MECP graduate assistant, who made the puppets in the display.

For the cultural centers, having the opportunity to bring their work and highlight their resources to such a wide audience has been one of the most rewarding outcomes of this exhibition.

For Alfred Guante ’05 (CLAS), director of the Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center (PRLACC), creating a space of belonging is at the root of his work.

“The first thing I want to tell people is to ‘come in’ to the center. People may see this center’s name that they don’t relate to it, but I can assure them that there are other people in the same room that also don’t relate, but they’re there and they love it,” says Guante, who was involved with PRLACC as a UConn student.

Celebrating belonging is at the core of this exhibition, and by displaying these unique cultures and opportunities for the UConn community to see, the sense of inclusion these centers provide will continue to flourish.

“Each center has a mission that we uphold, but really, it’s always about figuring out what each individual needs as a student and letting them know that there is a space for them,” says Guante.

The Threads of Identity exhibition will be on display in the Norman D. Stevents Gallery on the Plaza in UConn’s Homer Babbidge Library until December 31.