WELCOME + LOVES + ART

April 2026

Art Refuge made great links last year with @refswelcomens through one of the Home Office accommodation settings. This April we finally had an opportunity to collaborate with them at the legendary Loves Cafe @loveswsm in Weston-Super-Mare, where they have been holding bustling drop-ins for the local community of people seeking asylum, as well as offering steady volunteering opportunities for those who have forged their way through the system to settle in North Somerset.

Across the morning, we were delighted to welcome many people to our tables positioned across the two floors, with the majority commenting that they hadn’t used our materials since childhood. Loves Cafe, Refugees Welcome North Somerset and Art Refuge concluded that it would be valuable to find a way to work together in the future and so we are continuing dialogue to try and meet the needs of displaced people in the town and surrounding areas.

Staff, volunteers, attendees and local agencies all brought something to the table.

Words by Amy, Mitoshka & Sarah.