Threads of Us

Sanyu Creative Studio announces the opening of Threads of Us, a portrait and multimedia exhibition by Minneapolis-based photographer and architect Patricia Mutebi. The exhibition opens Friday, June 19, 2026, at The Residency by ModernDay Me in Minneapolis, and runs through July 18, 2026. Admission is free and open to the public.

Threads of Us documents how immigrant, diaspora, and Indigenous communities in the Twin Cities carry home with them. The series brings together 20 portraits across 10 communities, including but not limited to, Ojibwe, Ghanaian, Nigerian, Thai, and Indian participants, each photographed in culturally significant attire. Alongside every portrait, participants share reflections on identity, heritage, and belonging in their own words, recorded in audio and video.

The exhibition is designed as a participatory experience. Visitors are invited to contribute to an interactive community origin map, add to a growing word wall where each card completes the prompt “My Thread Is…”, and spend time in a listening corner featuring participant audio and video reflections. Together, these elements extend the series beyond portraiture and into a living, collective portrait of the Twin Cities.

Mutebi trained as an architect and studied in Uganda, Kenya, and Iowa, coming to photography through a practice rooted in space, community, and the built environment. Her work sits at the intersection of fine art portraiture, community storytelling, and land-based inquiry.

“This series started with a question I kept coming back to: what does it mean to carry home with you?” says Mutebi. “Every person in these portraits answered that question in their own way, in their own attire, in their own words. The exhibition is theirs as much as it is mine.”

The opening reception takes place on Juneteenth, Friday, June 19, from 5:00 to 8:00 PM. A community panel conversation, “What We Carry: A Community Dialogue,” follows on Saturday, June 27, from 2:00 to 5:00 PM, bringing together artists and collaborators for an open discussion on identity, belonging, and the stories behind the work.