The Stories We Thread brings together all the voices of the BEAF Arts Co‘s Seeking Refuge project; the young unaccompanied refugees, asylum seekers, and all the women and men refugees who come to our weekly workshops to create a large communal artwork for BEAF 2023 Arts Festival.

Using one of the oldest photographic printing techniques, the cyanotype, a camera-less process, will act as a collage of images using plants from the UK, maps of people’s hometowns, countries and precious objects.

‘Thursday Threads’ weekly participants (an ongoing Seeking Refuge and BEAF project) have been working collaboratively to sew these stories together, embellishing them with gold embroidery, and presenting to us the stories and journeys of all those who have fled their homes and communities.

Alongside the exhibition will be a set of ‘painting with light’ postcards that you can purchase, produced by participants from Bournemouth and Poole College in photography workshops at TOSH. The words are inspired by their first thoughts of the UK when they arrived.

About Seeking Refuge

Seeking Refuge is a creative, collaborative project sharing the hidden voices of people who have been forced to flee their homes. Seeking Refuge is an ongoing project that works with people seeking asylum in the UK and people that have settled in Bournemouth through ongoing creative workshops, such as textiles and photography, as well as working with locally commissioned artists. Facilitated by workshop leaders, Heidi Steller and Maddison Collymore.

Seeking Refuge is a BEAF Arts Co project.
Seeking Refuge is supported by: Alice Ellen Cooper Dean Charitable Foundation, Community Action Network, Dorset Community Foundation, Henry Smith Charity, JP Morgan, Lottery Community Fund, People’s Health Trust, Recreate Dorset, Valentine Charitable Trust.