UK
Our projects across southern England
BRISTOL, NORTH SOMERSET & SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE.
2015-PRESENT
Since 2015, we have offered arts-based psychosocial group activity in Bristol and the surrounding counties in support of people who are displaced, many of whom are unaccompanied young people. Central to our activity since 2021 is the delivery of sustained support using The Community Table in several of contingency hotel accommodation settings, moving out into North Somerset in 2024. Our Bristol work has been supported by a range of funders, including Lottery Community Fund and Quartet Foundation, with local partners: Creative Youth Network, Barton Hill Settlement, Bristol Hospitality Network and Bristol Refugee Festival. Our work is documented across our Blog posts.
Short projects and collaborations have included: Routes/Here 2021/22, a well-used online support group for people caring for young displaced individuals; and HOST (Hundreds of Small Tails), our collection of small plasticine creatures made in northern France and Kent and welcomed into the homes and workplaces across the Bristol community through simple acts of Hospitality @artrefuge_host. In 2021 we offered a photography project using an Afghan box camera with Farhad Berahman; in 2022 we delivered training for Bristol churches supporting Ukrainian refugees arriving throughout 2022 following the start of the full scale war. In 2024 we offered training for staff from The Little Library, part of the University of Bristol's Microcampus in Barton Hill; and collaborated with Caravan Arts taking an adapted model of The Community Table into a family hotel and bridging into Bristol Refugee Festival's finale. 2025 saw our participation in The Fête of Britain at Bristol's at Rough Trade, while new community-based collaborations are planned throughout 2026.
ESSEX.
2024-PRESENT
We began our work in Essex in response to the opening of Wethersfield Asylum Centre, the largest of three Home Office-run camp facilities in the UK, in an isolated rural location. The team alternated between sessions inside the camp itself (as one of very few charities gaining access) and a Braintree church drop-in managed by Care4Calais, located a 25-minute bus ride from the asylum centre. Supported by the King Baudouin Foundation and a council activities grant, Art Refuge delivered therapeutic art workshops and psychosocial activities throughout 2024. ‘The Community Table’ became a welcoming anchor amid long waits and sudden relocations. Offering stability for residents, onsite staff and volunteers also participated, helping reduce stigma and fear, build trust and psychosocial connection.
Notably, the involvement of artists Raman Feiz and Ghafar Tajmohammad, enriched our programme’s cultural relevance, further supported by a mobile camera obscura from Gainsborough’s House Learning Team on World Mental Health Day (2024) and participation in print workshops in Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury, Suffolk (2025). The Hope Bridge Project supported by Ben & Jerry’s UK Fund, the Tides Foundation (2024 and 2026) has connected residents with local people and volunteers through mapping, group walks, print and photography. Our programme remains flexible, responding to participants’ needs and ideas, building local connections and embracing partnerships with local initiatives. In late 2025 we joined Atelier Armonico for ‘Echoes of Home’, a 2 year art and dance collaboration project in this setting.
LONDON.
2021-PRESENT
Since 2021 we have worked in London on various projects with different partners. 2021-24 we worked alongside Young Roots, supporting their youth service programmes with The Community Table at Salaam, Copenhagen Youth project, and in Croydon. The Community Table acted as an anchor for new arrivals, enabling the youth workers to respond separately to individual concerns. We also worked collaboratively on several film projects led by Majid Adin and Tony Gammidge, including “Like Starting Life from Scratch”, a film centred on young people’s experiences living in London Home Office hotels, screened and shared publicly since 2025.
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A grant from Hackney Council for their Mental Health Support for Asylum Seekers Fund (MHSAS) 2025-26, has led to 9 workshops using The Community Table in a Home Office asylum hostel, and a 6 week Photography Project bridging out from the hostel for community photography sessions led by Aida Silvestri, culminating in an exhibition and sharing event around The Community Table at Yorkton Workshops, Hackney, May 2026. We continue to respond to requests for collaborations, training, research and exhibitions.
KENT.
2020-25
Art Refuge began working in Canterbury and Folkestone with KRAN (Kent Refugee Action Network) following meetings in 2020 during the Covid period, before offering arts-based psychosocial support for men housed in Napier Barracks (former military camp turned asylum centre) in Folkestone, both inside the camp alongside Napier Friends, and at the nearby Napier drop-in (2021-25). In 2022 we also regularly visited an under-supported Home Office contingency hotel on the seafront in Folkestone. HOST (Hundreds of Small Tails), was exhibited as part of the Folkestone Fringe in shops, galleries and other public venues, while we took The Community Table to Folkestone beach for Refugee Week (2022).
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In 2023 Art Refuge was a partner on the ‘Living Seams’ project “On Exile and Displacement in East Kent 2000-2021” led by Atelier Armonico which included several dance workshops for men housed in Napier led by choreographers and dancers, culminating in a performance at Quarterhouse of Zaubernacht, Kurt Weill’s ballet/opera set in a refugee camp and at sea. This moving event was attended by men from Napier, volunteers and local organisations, incorporating dance steps offered by the men from their own cultural dances, a precursor to dance coming to Essex. Our work in Kent came to a natural pause at the end of 2023, as community support for men housed at Napier Barracks increased, and the hotel closed. However, we continued to respond to requests for training and specific workshops at Napier Drop-In and in the camp until Napier Barracks was finally closed in December 2025.
EAST SUSSEX.
2023-24
Funded by Public Health Brighton and Hove, and East Sussex, Art Refuge offered in-person psychosocial training sessions in Brighton and Eastbourne for practitioners in local statutory and charity services working with people seeking asylum and refugees, covering such topics as Trauma informed practice, Psychological First Aid and Working across languages and cultures. Burnout was a pervading issue alongside the need for self-care. In Sanctuary in Eastbourne, we also set up The Community Table weekly and ran 3 arts-based psychosocial training sessions for Sanctuary’s volunteers.