‘The American Dream’ comes to Maltz Museum

The Maltz Museum’s new exhibition, “El Sueno Americano/The American Dream,” opened Sept. 18 and will be available to view through Feb. 16, 2026.

The traveling exhibition documents the migrant experience at the border between the U.S. and Mexico. It features nearly 300 works from artists Tom Kiefer, whose still-life photographs depict “nonessential” or “potentially lethal” items confiscated from migrants at the border. The show also features artist Elizabeth Z. Pineda, whose work highlights the dangers of the journey Mexican migrants take across the U.S.’s southern border.

Kiefer, who has a background in graphic design and landscape photography, moved in the early 2000s to Ajo, Ariz., a town about 40 miles from the border between the U.S. and Mexico with about 3,000 residents, according t