I'm Angel and I work here at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, where we have a lot of really cool artworks throughout our galleries.

And today we're going to see a really special art exhibition, and we're going to meet my friends who are a museum educator, an artist and a community leader.

So let's go.

I'm here with my friend and teammate Gabriela.

Gabriela, today we have a special treat.

We get to see the canoe of one community.

Can you tell us a little bit about what that is and how it got here?

Absolutely.

So this is an art exhibition brought to you by Crystal Bridges, artist Kholoud Sawaf.

and a local organization, the Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese.

And I think I heard that there's an artist here that we get to talk to.

Can we go talk to her?

- Absolutely.

Let's go.

- Awesome.

Hi, friends.

My name is Kholoud Sawaf.

I was born in Syria, a place that is far away, very beautiful and very good food.

And she is the artist that we're working together with to make the collaboration happen with the canoe.

Why did you choose the canoe?

That's a really good question.

This project started in collaboration with Crystal Bridges, and we talked about doing a project that speaks about a specific local community here we have in northwest Arkansas, individuals from the Marshall Islands.

So we started talking about how can we tell the story of the Marshallese people and how can we do that through art?

So while talking to individuals from the Marshall Islands, I learned so much about the importance of the canoe as a way of transportation as well as culturally.

Generosity is very important for this culture.

They are individuals who love sharing how cool it is to have that canoe here and the site of Crystal Bridges where we have water and then we can actually part of the celebration float the canoe.

The idea of kindness is a very important core for the Marshallese culture.

So that was a very key element of why the canoe became the key project for our collaboration.

Another thing I learned from the Marshallese community is how important it is for us as humans to meet and learn from individuals who are different than us.

Before I worked on this project, I didn't know anything about the Marshall Islands and through meeting those community members, I learned how much as human beings we have in common and how much we can learn from each other.

And I learned that no one knows everything.

Everyone knows something.

And together we know a lot.

Thank you so much for sharing.

Let's go back to see Angel and she's going to talk to Melissa about the Marshallese community here in Arkansas.

Hey, Melissa.

- Hey, Angel.

Hi, friends.

Melissa, can you introduce yourself to our friends today?

Hi, friends.

(Marshallese greeting) Greetings, everyone.

My name is Melissa Laelan.

I am a Marshallese woman.

Marshall Islanders actually moved to northwest Arkansas in the late seventies.

They brought with them their skills, their culture and their knowledge.

Absolutely.

I think you brought some things to share with us today.

Can you show me what you brought with you?

Yes, I really brought some cool stuff, you guys.

The first thing is actually a small canoe.

Look at that.

- So cute.

This is a small canoe that they would make and they would go from one point to the next.

And the canoes is so important in our culture, you know.

Did you know the bottom piece of this canoe is called kindness, but in Marshallese, you call it jouj.

Jouj is really kindness is a foundation of the Marshallese culture.

So it bears all the weight that you have.

So that's why we call it kindness.

So really you can't get anywhere without kindness.

Oh, yeah, it's about sharing and kindness.

And I want to show you something, too.

This right here.

This is where I'm from.

This is the map that our people used to, used to utilize as a tool.

Nowadays you just use the phone.

But back then this was what they were using and they were going from space to space.

Journey of boys on the vast ocean.

Marshall Islands are in the Pacific.

If you have a hard time finding that, just think of it this way.

It's a midpoint of Hawaii and New Zealand.

That seems far.

Is is very, very far.

It takes about two days to fly there.

- Wow.

And the name of your city is Majuro.

That's beautiful.

Oh, thank you.

Well, Melissa, this has all been so great to learn.

Thank you for sharing with us.

It was so much fun to get to talk to our artist friend and our educator friend and our community leader friend today at Crystal Bridges Museum of Art.

And I hope that you'll come and visit us too.