JOIN OUR FUNDRAISING
COMMUNITY
Scroll down to discover previous fundraising activity that has helped shape our work, and take inspiration!
Host a Fundraiser
From Exhibitions, raffles and live events, to marathons, legacies and gifts, take a look below at past fundraising activity for inspiration.
We are honoured to have a creative and dynamic community made up of individuals, friends, families, collectives and movements, supporting us through monthly donations, gifts and legacies, and fundraising through events such as art auctions, epic walks, marathons and art sales.
And, thank you for supporting Art Refuge in our own fundraising campaigns and events, such as "Wish You Were Here" - see below!
HUGE THANKS to our growing Art Refuge community.
As a small mobile charity without a physical base, we go to where people are located and where we are needed most. We keep our running costs to a minimum, ensuring that around 90% of our income goes directly into delivering our work. We also reuse our materials and resources where we can as a core principle of our practice.
While specific projects are funded by grants and small trusts, we depend on donations to help continue our core work on either side of the English Channel.​ With gratitude to the growing number of people who make one-off gifts or monthly payments via JustGiving page HERE as well as for the amazing variety of activity taking place to raise funds for Art Refuge.
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We try to acknowledge everyone but have minimal admin support, so thank you for bearing with us. If you do fundraise for Art Refuge, please email us the details at info@artrefuge.org.uk so that we can Thank You and include you on this page!
"Art Refuge has helped me feel connected and not alone."
-Young person seeking asylum,
in temporary accommodation in Kent
"We need these community tables everywhere.”
- participant, The Community Table, Calais
"Art Refuge has helped displaced people like me feel human again; and that we are not useless."
- Participant, The Community Table, Calais
Art Sales
From Craft fairs to pottery raffles to poetry books!
We would like to thank to following for your support:
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In 2024, Harbour Cultural Cafe hosted inspiring talks I
Over 180 artists who took part in our own Wish You Were Here Fundraising Raffle and Exhibition, (2021) over £14,000 to put towards our direct-project-delivery. | The Great Pottery Throwdown: We were delighted to be chosen as the charity to receive the funds from the fabulous Great Pottery Raffle in 2022. | Contemporary Collage Magazine: The Postcard Challenge, December 2021 | @paperartistcollective created a 2022 calendar with all profits going to Art Refuge | Bristol Clay held a private view ahead of their exhibition in central Bristol and sold 100 handmade beakers, with the entire proceeds going to Art Refuge. | @_positivepoetry crafted the beautiful 'In Other Words', a new zine series which holds a collective of hopeful voices in a beautiful A5 colour print. | @picturethis.home - a global online event for people all over the world to draw their version of home - past, present or future. The aim was to set a new world record for the number of people drawing online at the same time, simultaneously bringing in donated funds for Art Refuge and The Teapot Trust. | Artist, Deborah created a migration themed poster “Imagine - A Better World is Possible” a challenging, playful, uplifting monograph on how the creative imagination might guide us through these dark sad days’. | Artist, Hannah Gaffey, set up an online raffle and raised 134% of her Just Giving target. | Artworks for Aid began an epic online art auction. | Prints Charming held an exhibition and silent auction of prints from artists on the theme of folklore. | The Poppy Collective set up an open garden studio and collected art to sell. | Artist and illustrator Sophie Martin donated a generous percentage of her art and book sales. |
Sporting / Live Events
From Marthans to fashion shows to art workshops!
We would like to thank to following for your support:
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Lt. Kieran Lewis and his team for their Mud Run. | Work Party for their 'The Local' entertainment night in Leeds | Art Refuge’s CEO, Bobby Lloyd and Jasmine Usiskin who both ran the Hackney half marathon | Lloyd Owen who ran the London Marathon! I FUZE Bristol led by students from the University of Bristol held a dynamic year-long campaign in support of Black South West Network and Art Refuge, going out on a high with an incredible end of year extravaganza to showcase emerging talent from fashion, music and dance. | Traversing the Pyrenees: Naomi Press and Seth Wolpin walked an historical migrant route across the Pyrenees | Crafternoon Tea in Bristol ran a children’s format afternoon tea for an adult audience | The Sinners Collective: hosted creative workshops because “we believe in art as a vehicle to empower society”.
Legacies & Tributes
With our thanks to David Bull who in 2024 donated his late wife Ann's large and wonderful collection of high quality art materials which is adding immense value across our projects.
With our thanks to the following who set up Tribute pages in memory of close family members, in turn raising vital funds for Art Refuge: the Melville-Brown family on behalf of their artist father Chris Melville-Brown | Tom Avery on behalf of his father Pete Avery who was a keen painter I Becky Harley on behalf of her mother Marian Mann who was an artist and art teacher.
More than 180 established and emerging artists from across the world generously donated a postcard-sized artwork as part of Wish You Were Here fundraising raffle/exhibition (2021).
These included artworks by Cornelia Parker, Aida Silvestri, Eileen Cooper, Richard Deacon, Jeremy Deller, Rana Begum, Gillian Vaux, Grayson Perry, Cedric Christie, Majid Adin, Januário Jano, Liaqat Rasul... All of the artists can be found here: @artrefuge_wishyouwerehere
Scroll down to discover more about Wish You Were Here.
Wish You Were Here Fundraising Exhibition & Raffle
Yorkton Workshops,
East London
1st-4th December 2021
In December 2021, we hosted Wish You Were Here, and raised over £14,000 to put towards our direct-project-delivery.
More than 180 established and emerging artists from across the world generously donated a postcard-sized artwork (6x4 inches). These included: Cornelia Parker, Aida Silvestri, Eileen Cooper, Richard Deacon, Jeremy Deller, Rana Begum, Gillian Vaux, Grayson Perry, Cedric Christie, Majid Adin, Januário Jano, Liaqat Rasul…
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We exhibited these artworks across four days at Yorkton Workshops, and on the evening of our Private View, we hosted a digital raffle where all artworks were won at random!
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Follow @artrefuge_wishyouwerehere to find out more.
At the Wish You Were Here exhibition space at Yorkton Workshops, Haggerston, we displayed a selection of postcards made by people who are displaced and attending The Community Table in various settings .
"ESSENTIAL ARTS-BASED SUPPORT FOR REFUGEES - UK & NORTHERN FRANCE!"
THE BIG GIVE'S CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE 2023
We know that people on the move and seeking refuge are often isolated, marginalised and struggling with their mental health, particularly during the long winter months.
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In December 2023, with your generosity we raised £7,950 through The Big Give's Christmas Challenge to support the delivery of vital arts-based psychosocial support across winter 2023/24 to people seeking refuge and living in precarious conditions in the UK and northern France.
"I wouldn't have left the hotel all week if it wasn't for this [The Community Table]"
- Young person seeking asylum, living in temporary accommodation in London
“Attending these workshops gives me confidence to find support in the next place I go to.”
- Participant, The Community Table, Folkestone
15-22 May 2023
With your help, we raised over £10,000 towards resilience-building workshops
for asylum seekers
in the UK with the
BIG GIVE.
The Big Give pledged to match your donations to the tune of £5000! With more than £10,000, we delivered vital psychosocial workshops for refugees in Folkestone, Brighton and Bristol.
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Your donation to our Kind2Mind campaign funded arts-based resilience building workshops that supported the mental health of adult asylum seekers in temporary Home Office accommodation across SE & SW England.