A Photographic Collaboration between Julia Arstorp and Leland Smith
Opening Reception: Wednesday, September 30, 2026 from 4:30pm - 6:00pm
2nd Floor Beacon Hall
The Ellis Island Immigration Hospital was once a place of arrival, hope, and new beginnings for immigrants entering the United States. Between 1902 and 1951 the hospital treated over 275,000 patients. Ellis Island itself operated from 1892 to 1954.
This collaborative project is an ode to the 275,000 patients who passed through its halls and the enduring stories they carried. Drawn to its abandoned rooms, paint-peeled walls, and shadowed traces of lives left behind, two artists developed their distinct approaches.
Leland Smith’s photographs, rich in texture, color, and tone, suggest the wonder of a newly arrived immigrant's first glimpse of an unfamiliar world. Julia Arstorp’s black-and-white collages and diptychs turn toward memory by weaving narratives of the past to reveal the hospital’s symbolic presence.
Together, their complementary perspectives invite visitors to consider the Ellis Island Immigration Hospital not only as a place where people arrived, but also as a place where stories began and still remain.
Free and open to the public.
Beacon Hall, CT State Housatonic (900 Lafayette Blvd)
