As the 2026 Homecoming exhibition “(Y)OUR LAND” comes to a close, artist Mitchell Hancock emphasizes the importance of showing empathy for foreigners in today’s society.
Hancock was born in the United States and moved to Mexico when he was five years old. He lived mostly in Mexico City and Puebla, spending much of his life as a foreigner himself.
“I find a lot of camaraderie with foreigners and other people who have, who are currently or who have been a foreigner in their lives,” Hancock said of how his childhood abroad influenced him. “I feel like it’s given me a fairly open worldview as far as recognizing that other people have a lot of different experiences, different than me, and different from your average American.”
Hancock moved back to the United States to attend college. He graduated from Milligan in 2018. During his time at Milligan, he began the project for a photojournalism class. He later revived and expanded the project, which became the 2026 Homecoming exhibition.
The current political situation was one reason he revived the project.
“I think immigrants, especially Latin American immigrants right now, are being treated pretty poorly by the government and sometimes by their neighbors,” Hancock said. “And so I had hoped, and I still hope, that with this exhibit I’m able to tell people’s stories, and hopefully people will realize that we are more alike than we realize, and we are more like the foreigners among us than we think, and that we all are deserving of being welcomed and we all want to find a home.”
His photographs tell the stories of foreigners in foreign lands and immigrants searching for a home in new places. Hancock hopes visitors take something away from the exhibit.
“I hope they read the stories of, in some cases, their literal neighbors,” he said. “A lot of people in the exhibit are local, and I hope they can gain some empathy for their neighbor. I hope they’re able to put themselves in the shoes of maybe people less fortunate than them. And ultimately, I do hope it affects how, in general, we treat our neighbors, especially foreigners from other countries, and especially our Hispanic neighbors. Whether documented or otherwise, I think as Christians our first response should be to love, and I think that includes welcoming the stranger, which I find all over the Bible.”
As the exhibit ends at Milligan, its future is unclear, but Hancock hopes to continue the project.
“I would love to continue taking pictures of foreigners and of people who contain multiple cultures within themselves,” he said. “And so, I would welcome anybody who would identify as fitting that bill.”
Photo: The 2026 homecoming exhibition “(Y)OUR LAND” by Mitchell Hancock in the Milligan Art Gallery on Nov. 3. (by Emily Haas)
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