‘Working America’ at Chandler Museum through late May

CHANDLER — In the photography exhibition Working America, artist Sam Comen presents American immigrants and first-generation Americans at work in the small, skilled trades as icons of the American experience.

The subjects share stories of economic independence and struggle, belonging and exclusion, faith and fear, and service to both community and family.

Working America is a meditation on American belonging and American becoming. It poetically acknowledges the lives of and contributions that working men and women make as a part of our country and our collective experience.

The exhibit opened Jan. 31 at Chandler Museum and will be on view through May 21.

The exhibit is toured by ExhibitsUSA, a national program of Mid-America Arts Alliance. ExhibitsUSA sends more than 25 exhibitions on tour to over 100 small- and medium-sized communities every year.

A variety of themes are explored in the portraits and accompanying interviews. Some touch on the dignity of work, inequity among immigrant nationalities, or the political relevance of labor migrants.

Others examine intergenerational legacies of inherited skills, the learning of new skills to adapt to the new land of opportunity, or the relationship between a nation’s identity and the identities of the individuals who comprise that nation.

Chandler Museum will host a family program to engage visitors of all ages. Drop in Saturday, April 29 between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. for the “In the Exhibits” program.

The Chandler Museum is located 300 S. Chandler Village Drive. It is open Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday 1-5 p.m. and closed on Mondays. Admission is free.

Find more information on the exhibitions and programming online at chandlermuseum.org or by calling 480-782-2717.