OUR STORY

Art Refuge - its origins as a UK registered charity and development since 2006

2006-12.

In May 2006, Art Refuge UK was officially constituted as a UK registered charity to deliver small, focused programmes in reception centres in Kathmandu, Nepal and Dharamsala, India to support newly arrived Tibetan children and young people through visual arts and creative play.

Run by the Tibetan Government in Exile, the reception centres supported thousands of new arrivals from Tibet who had crossed the Himalayas on foot into Nepal and India in search of religious and political freedom. Many of the children and young people exhibited physical illnesses and injuries from their arduous journeys. Separated from parents, family and their homeland, and often waiting weeks for their papers to be processed in each setting, many struggled psychologically, exhibiting as withdrawn, and anxious about what their future lives might hold.

From 2006-12, Tibetan staff were employed by Art Refuge UK to deliver art and play programmes from dedicated classrooms in each setting, supported by highly qualified volunteers from the international community, including those with training in art therapy and mental health and psychosocial support, as well as many artists and arts practitioners. Thousands of children and young people found psychological refuge in these programmes while they waited for the next stage in their journey. Here they encountered a sense of playfulness, had their stories witnessed, discovered a space for a sense of belonging and were encouraged to develop a visual language to help them transition into their new lives.

During this period, art therapists Sarah Robinson and Jayne McConkey became involved on the ground in Nepal and India, while Bobby Lloyd was invited to join the trustee team. During this time, the travelling exhibition Journey Into Exile was toured by volunteers around the UK and further afield, educating the public on the arduous journeys undertaken by young Tibetan refugees seeking safety in Nepal and India.

Art Refuge had an earlier history dating back to 1994, beginning life as an afterschool painting club at Tibetan Homes Foundation in Mussoorie, India before expanding to the two reception centres in Nepal and India where the original classrooms were secured, and creative activities delivered. This early work was led by two American artists, photographer Kitty Leaken and jewellery-maker Sarah Lucas, who then hired and trained two Tibetan staff to continue their work.

In 2006, longterm volunteer Frances Fox took over the responsibilities of overseeing staff and volunteers, setting up the UK charity Art Refuge UK with the help of Karen Littleton and a small group of other trustees.

The important legacy of the earlier work has stayed with the charity across its lifespan, in particular its focus on using art and art therapy to support the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of people displaced on either side of political borders.

2013-17.

In 2013, as numbers of new arrivals from Tibet started to deplete dramatically, we began to respond to other refugee populations and requests, with a focus on Nepal. Here, our growing pool of experienced registered art therapists started to deliver 'safe art making' trainings for local psychologists, counsellors and teachers working with refugees and displaced populations.

In late 2015 and early 2017, our efforts focused on sharing our art and art therapy expertise with local carers in coping with the short and longer-term effects of the devastating Spring earthquakes in Nepal. We provided training for over 100 caring professionals, artists, architects and teachers from both local and international organisations, collaborating with local NGO's in the delivery of its programmes. The trainings, led by Naomi Press, Jess Linton and Jayne McConkey, benefited, amongst others: UNHCR, UNICEF, Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation Nepal (TPO Nepal), Snow Lion Foundation, Higher Ground Counselling, Sidartha Arts Foundation and The Children’s Art Museum.

In 2013, the charity changed its charitable objectives to include mental health and wellbeing support of people, including refugees and asylum seekers, in the UK. This led to the start of delivery of psychosocial activities in subsequent years, starting in Bristol.

2015-19.

2015 saw a significant rise in the movement of people into Europe seeking asylum, with one million people by the end of the year and what was called the Refugee Crisis. On the initiative of Naomi Press and through the skills of a core team of art therapists, Art Refuge UK delivered a weekly programme of arts-based psychosocial spaces in the Calais refugee camp, northern France. Please visit our FRANCE page for further detail.

As our workload increased across sites, Bobby Lloyd - visual artist, art therapist as well as trustee of Art Refuge UK since 2008 - became the first CEO of the charity in 2016 in order to steer its growing team and work across sites and with diverse partners.

In parallel to our work in France, in 2015 we began to develop projects in the UK. Bristol based art therapist Sarah Robinson began with a year long art therapy group for unaccompanied teenagers (including several with whom we had worked in the large Calais camp), and followed on from a pilot project with teenagers and with women. In 2018, we delivered a pilot art therapy group for unaccompanied teenagers in Ealing, London, funded with a grant from Trust for London, co-led by art therapists Emily Hollingsbee and Katie Miller. A further pilot project took place in Belfast led by art therapist Jayne McConkey.

We launched our new Photography Project in Bristol in 2019 and also took part in the ACAMH conference, with trustees Dr Ravi Kohli, Dr Kathryn Cronin and CEO Bobby Lloyd contributing their expertise as keynote speakers. We were also invited to take a leading role in the art workshops of Drawing Together Project, a 4 year research project which is asking the question: 'How do young refugees rebuild their everyday life in Finland, Norway and Scotland?'

Late 2019 saw the official name change of the charity from Art Refuge UK to Art Refuge. We also updated our charitable objectives to include a more international focus and further embrace research, exhibitions and training.

2020-21.

In early 2020 we continued our fortnightly delivery in Calais and extended our work to include training sessions in Paris at Le Cedre, Secours Catholique. However, in mid March, when the Covid19 pandemic reached the UK and the first lockdown took place, the Art Refuge team was no longer able to travel to deliver our work in France. Our skills and experience in crisis support soon proved valuable to our team, our partners and others delivering frontline services in the UK and further afield.

We set up The Community Table Online as a regular creative space in its own right that spanned the UK, France and further afield. We also delivered training for frontline workers in Psychological First Aid (PFA), trauma, copy and resilience, and in self-care. Our ‘local/global virtual art project on instagram CORONAQUILT received more than 1800 contributions of artworks/photographs/textiles on the theme of daily rituals from our 35 countries worldwide.

In Kent, on the other side of the English Channel from Calais, we made new connections with Kent Refugee Action Network (KRAN) and welcomed Eritrean artist/photographer Aida Silvestri into our team. We began tentative work in the Napier Army Barracks and then moved our project online to Thursday Art Support Group, largely for men dispersed to hotels across England. Our Photography Project in Bristol continued in partnership with Creative Youth Network continued until early summer 2020, while we gradually shifted our focus to support foster-carers and others providing support to the young people themselves through our project Routes/Here.

2022-26.

Across 2022-23, we took The Community Table to Napier Barracks and Napier Drop-in in Folkestone, only scaling back our presence as local voluntary groups increased their offer of support within the community. In addition to our core programmes, members of the growing Art Refuge freelance team of artists and art therapists began work in Bristol with Ukrainian families arriving on the ‘Homes for Ukraine’ resettlement scheme; delivered bespoke trainings for over 400 people in France and across the UK; collaborated with Young Roots on a number of film projects with Tony Gammidge and Majid Adin; and the start of regular psychosocial support with people housed in Wethersfield Asylum Centre in rural Essex. Our work has taken place as part of a growing coalition of over 500 refugee organisations working for a kinder, fairer, more compassionate and effective approach to supporting refugees in the UK, through Together with Refugees.

In 2024, we reached 100's of children and their families through our online support project in Nakivale refugee camp, Uganda; took part in two research projects and one University-based collaboration, and won an award for writing on The Community Table model. Bobby Lloyd and Miriam Usiskin delivered trainings in Lviv, Ukraine with First Aid of the Soul in March 2024, and began a collaboration with the rescue ship SOS Humanity, including a training on board the ship in Sicily in September that year.

Working across a 5 year time period, in 2025 Dr Miriam Usiskin completed her Educational Doctorate on The Community Table model practice, which is now used across our work, and is gathering widespread interest from practitioners, NGO’s and academics.

In late 2025 we marked our 10 year anniversary of Art Refuge’s cross-Channel programmes with 2 exhibitions in France: 24X24 DUNKERQUE in collaboration with Médecins du Monde, and La Commune Stable at Les Labos in Paris. The latter also saw the launch in November of the new association Art Refuge Canopy for Paris-based work and access to European funds.

In October 2024, a small team started a fortnightly online psychosocial support group for the core staff team of the UK charity Green Kordofan in Yida Refugee Camp, South Sudan, which has continued into 2026 as the humanitarian crisis in the region has become the worst in the world. Art Refuge's team continues to sow seeds for new small-scale projects and partnerships. May 2026 sees 20 YEARS OF ART REFUGE at Yorkton Workshops, an exhibition marking 20 years since our founding as a UK registered charity.

Please visit our BLOG, and our UK & France pages for up-to-date reports on our work.