TEMECULA – The Temecula Valley Museum presents “Cloth as Community: Hmong Textiles in America,” an exhibit organized and toured by ExhibitsUSA, a national part of Mid-America Arts Alliance. The exhibition was first curated in 1999 by Carl Magnuson, a cultural anthropologist, working with a Hmong refugee community. This beautiful, unique exhibit visually honors the transition from refugee to life in America and will be on display through Aug. 7.Hmong flower cloth, called orpaj ntaub, is one of the world’s great textile traditions and an excellent example of cloth as community. Despite its deep roots in Hmong culture, this complex art was not widely known outside Asia until after the Vietnam War, when Hmong refugees arrived in the United States. The works illustrate the profound
