Newcastle Common, an Appetite project, will be hosting an event filled with creativity and food! Working with our Artist In Residence Semaan Khawam our lunch club participants, from the refugee and asylum seekers communities of Newcastle and Stoke will enjoy learning to express themselves through painting, sculpture and poetry. A wider audience will then gather from 12 midday to share halal food by a local caterer and enjoy poetry written by both Khawam and Bogdan Dragos, performed by Dragos. This event accompanies an exhibition, Art for Peace, by Alison Lochhead, whereby the futility of war is explored through paintings and sculptures, touching on themes of migration and loss.

All of this will take place in one of the town centre units we have occupied for a year to bring arts and culture to the local communities and visitors to the town.