Seeking refuge Exhibition

Seeking Refuge Project Participants
A Seat at the Table, 2024

A Seat at the Table is a communal work of embroidered plates of food inspired by the countries of people seeking refuge in the UK, currently staying in Bournemouth. Some of the dishes included on the plates are; Gallo Pinto from Nicaragua, Mopane Worms from Namibia, Kibbeh from Syria, Pide from Turkey, and Ful Madames from Egypt. Each dish represents a culinary tradition from a country where people are seeking refuge in the UK.

Afghanistan, Albania, Colombia, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Honduras, Iran, Kuwait, Morocco, Namibia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, Ukraine, India, Venezuela, Chile, Palestine and Poland are countries of people seeking refuge in the UK currently staying in Bournemouth.

A Seat at the Table has been creatively made using disused hotel sheets by participants of our Seeking Refuge Project throughout the past few months. Candlesticks adorned the top of the work which have been created by participants in our Community Mondays workshops, along with crochet flowers made by Fatamah.

With thanks to all the participants and the Seeking Refuge Project workshop leader Beth Brickman.

A Seat at the Table was a BEAF Arts 2024 Commission.

It was pressnted within our Journeys of Resilience exhibition at B.A.D. between 15-22 June 2024, as part of our BEAF Arts Summer Programme 2024. Journeys of Resilience explored what it means to leave your home and build a new community. It highlighted the journeys people have travelled and their experiences in the UK. It focussed on resilience, loss, hope and the celebration of people coming together.

Seeking Refuge Project Participants 

The Stories We Thread, 2023

The Stories We Thread brings together all the voices of the Seeking Refuge Project; the young unaccompanied refugees, asylum seekers, and the male and female refugees who come to our ongoing workshops, to create one large communal artwork. 

Using one of the oldest photographic printing techniques, the cyanotype, a camera-less process, a tapestry of images have been pieced together, including plants from the UK, maps of people’s hometowns, countries and precious objects. Participants from the project’s regular group, ‘Thursday Threads’ worked collaboratively to sew all these images together, embellishing them with gold embroidery and thread, to present the stories and journeys of all those who have fled their homes and communities.

The Seeking Refuge Project has received support from Alice Ellen Cooper Dean Charitable Foundation, Community Action Network, Dorset Community Foundation, Henry Smith Charity, JP Morgan, Lottery Community Fund, People’s Health Trust, Recreate Dorset, Valentine Charitable Trust.

The Stories We Thread was a BEAF Arts 2023 Commission. 

It was shown at The Old School House during BEAF Arts Festival 2023, 16-25 June 2023. 

The Seeking Refuge Exhibition 2021

A project that shares the stories, memories and hopes of real and unique people.

By the end of 2019, there were nearly 26 million refugees in the world. It was a record number, and half were children. This was clearly a crucial issue. Yet the public dialogue about refugees in the wake of the Brexit debate, in both the press and in social media, produced more heat than light. I became increasingly determined to start a project to throw light on the lives of refugees and this exhibition of photographs is the beginning. Photographs remind us that refugees are real people. Unique people. Each with their own story, and their own lived experience. These photographs introduce us to seven people who left places as diverse as Syria, Venezuela and Sudan, where they had led lives as varied as a secondary school headteacher, a photographer with his own studio, and a student at school.

The lives of these individuals are shown to us through the eyes of six photographers. Each photographer spent time creating a relationship with a person now living in Bournemouth. They talked together, walked together, ate together. During the time they spent together, the photographers learned about what people had needed to escape from, and what rich and full lives they had left behind. They learned about the real cost of seeking refuge. This is an exhibition based on real lives. It is my attempt to spread some light amongst the heat. – Caroline Beale Johnson

Seeking Refuge exhibtion was supported by The Arts University Bournemouth and Arts Council England.

Curated by Caroline Beale Johnson. 

The Seeking Refuge Exhibition was shown at B.A.D (Boscombe Arts Depot) as part of the BEAF Festival (2B Human) from 26 June-04 July 2021. 

Please explore the stories and the photographers work below.

Ala’a photographed by Carol John

Amir photographed by Charlie Hall

Hanh photographed by George Maund

Ahed photographed by kitty Gale

Pilar photographed by Lauren Forster

Mohamed photographed by Matt Trapp

Photographs by H

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