Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

0

  • Work on this object ended.

2015

  • Work on this object began.

2022

2025

  • You found it!

Project, Safe Passage Bags Workshop

This is a Project. It was designed by Lesvos Solidarity and collaborator: Humade Crafts. It is dated 2015-ongoing. It is a part of the department.


Lesbos (Lesvos in Greek), Greece

Fleeing conflicts and persecution, record numbers of refugees have arrived on the shores of Greece’s island of Lesbos. In solidarity, local residents transformed a former summer camp into a community-run refugee camp, setting up the Safe Passage Bags workshop. Employing refugees, as well as local residents, the workshop was set up as a place where they could work and create something together while learning a new skill. Sending an important message to the world—the right to safe passage—bags of all sizes are made from recycled life jackets and dinghies no longer needed after the treacherous sea journey.

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Designing Peace.

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/2318806220/ |title=Project, Safe Passage Bags Workshop |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=15 March 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>