Creativity and community 

Photo credit: Fred Glenister 

In June, we celebrated the launch of Refugee Week with an art exhibition in collaboration with the Sugar Stealers. The exhibition showcased artwork produced by our Access Art group throughout the year, highlighting the creativity and stories of our participants.

This event and our weekly art group has been made possible thanks to the efforts of volunteers, such as Theo. Read Theo's experience visiting the art exhibition below:

             

I visited the exhibition yesterday, primarily to view it and take lots of photos. When I arrived, the English class was in full flow and the room was filled with artworks, colour, chatter and warmth. 

As I began to view the artworks and read the various pieces of text, I became moved with emotion. I gained a real sense of the importance of the work. It's so easy to get caught up in the busy-ness of delivery of projects and making sure everyone is OK and things are where they should be at the right time, and time to reflect is seldom taken. 

When we began this arts project over three years ago, it was on an extremely small budget and at the time, there were no plans or even ambitions to see it grow. But grow it has. The exhibition is beautiful! I just want to say a great big "Well done" to you for delivering the programme and staging this wonderful exhibition. Of course, thanks need to go to the artists for facilitating the groups, but you guys have made it all happen.

I would like to finish my comments with a quote from a participant:

Refugee Roots helps by being beside us and this helped me to survive