Many Homes: Personal Journeys and Visual Narratives

The Iranian Studies Students’ Forum
and the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies
jointly present

Many Homes: Personal Journeys and Visual Narratives

Elena Soní, Vanessa Barnett, and Negar Sagharichi

Friday, October 3, 2025, 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. EDT

This project celebrates a socially engaged partnership between the Aga Khan Museum, co-curators Vanessa Barnett and Elena Soní, together with students, teachers, and administrators from Greenwood Secondary School and Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute in the Toronto District School Board. This project was supported through an Artist in Education grant from the Ontario Arts Council.

“Many Homes” reflects the way Canadian students of immigrant parents, newly arrived refugee students, and immigrant youth have interpreted the concept of home and what it means to “have a roof over your head”. Each participant created a small structure that served as a personal metaphor for their emotions and idea of home. Through this project, students explored how they experienced change in their lives and journeys of adjustment to Canada.

The art pieces reflected how participants learned to take their individual concept of home with them and recreate it in a new setting. Each panel was connected with many others so that the structures were in dialogue with one another, and a new community was established.