Exhibition features migrant workers

Thursday, August 24, 2006 The exhibition offers a different view of the community. SPECIAL TO THE VINDICATOR CANTON — A community of migrant workers returns to Hartville year after year to work a vegetable farm owned by the Zellers family. The original photo exhibition "Growing Season: The Life of a Migrant Community," opening Sept. 9 at the Canton Museum of Art, offers an intimate portrait of this largely Latino migrant community and a way of life that is rarely seen, or understood, by people outside this close-knit circle. The exhibit will present 50 images and the text of their related stories. It coincides with the September publishing of the 192-page book, "Growing Seasons: The Life of a Migrant Community," by Kent State University Press. Photographer Gary Harwood and writer David Hassler have worked closely with the people of this community over several years to document the challenges and joys of their daily lives. This exhibition puts a human face on the migrant community as well as recognizes the Hartville Migrant Ministries and the volunteers who work to improve conditions for the migrants. Starting on project When photographer Gary Harwood first received permission to photograph the migrants at the K.W. Zellers and Son Inc. family farm during the summer of 2001, he anticipated that he would be documenting hardship. Migrant workers continually face difficult conditions while trying to support themselves and their families. Farm work is physical, hot and dirty. The days in the fields are long and exhausting. Growers can be brutal employers and there is no shortage of documented cases of terrible living and working conditions. In Hartville, however, Harwood found a different story. Here the workers and their families live in a strong community supported by the Hartville Migrant Center and many caring neighbors. About 70 percent of them return annually to this small town where they have established solid friendships. Gaining trust Over the next four growing seasons, Harwood came to know and gain the trust of these Mexican-American and Mexican migrant families who travel each year to Ohio from the southern United States and Mexico. From the beginning, he displayed his photographs of the walls of the Migrant Center so that the entire community or more than 300 workers and their families could see what he found to be special and captivating about their lives. Though his work began with field photos, over time he focused more on family pictures, as he was invited to photograph baptisms, first communions, weddings, birthday parties and private family events. In 2004, writer David Hassler, began collaborating with Harwood on this documentary project. That spring, when the workers returned to the farm, Hassler began interviewing the migrants as well as community members and volunteers at the Center. Working from transcripts of his interviews, Hassler wrote first-person narratives that speak with the voices of the people themselves. The exhibition opening will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Sept. 9. It is free and open to the public, but reservations are requested. Call (330) 453-7666. The Canton Museum of Art is in the Cultural Center for the Arts at 1001 Market Ave. North in downtown Canton. Admission to the museum is $4 for adults, $2.50 for seniors and children (6-12). Tuesdays are free to all. Museum hours are Monday through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m.; and Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m.