Everyone is welcome! Join us on Saturday 20 June for our Refugee Week Celebration Day! A free day of creativity, connection and community. Through music, exhibitions, workshops and shared experiences, the day celebrates the stories, cultures and contributions of people seeking sanctuary and those who have made Wakefield their home.
Throughout the day, visitors can take part in free creative activities, live music and drumming performance, collaborative screen printing, food stories and recipe sharing, and free Persian tea served in the spirit of welcome, hospitality and community. These free drop-in activities are for all ages, and take place alongside the launch of three new exhibitions exploring themes of identity, memory, belonging and solidarity.
Exhibitions opening on Refugee Celebration Day:
Andy Welland: IMAGINED TERRITORIES
Imagined Territories is a new sculpture and public intervention by artist and designer Andy Welland, whose practice uses bright and playful collage works to celebrate togetherness, connection and the joy of being human. The work reimagines the flag as a symbol of connection rather than division – a flag for everyone, and for no one.
Read More
Kadir Karababa: One Song
One Song is an audio-visual installation and community project that explores how music carries memory, identity and a sense of home across borders. First begun in 2024, Kadir Karababa’s project is an evolving archive of songs and stories developed with women who have personal experience of migration or seeking sanctuary.
Read More
Fotohane x The Art House
The Art House begins a new international collaboration with Fotohane Darkroom, a participatory arts project using
analogue photography to work with children and young people living near the Türkiye–Syria–Iraq border regions. Founded by photographers Serbest Salih and Amar Kılıç, Fotohane creates spaces where children can learn photography, develop their own images, and share their experiences through visual storytelling.
Read more
About Refugee Week
Refugee Week is an annual seven-day festival which takes place in June each year. The festival takes place in the week around World Refugee Day (on the 21st June). It is a time to celebrate the contributions of the UK’s refugee and asylum seeking communities, and to raise awareness as to why people seek sanctuary. The theme of this year’s celebrations “Community as a superpower”.