On Monday 17th June, The Refugee Buddy Project (TRBP) will launch the Refugee Week programme with a film preview, object display and Palestinian buffet celebrating the collaborative project, Flavours Without Borders, at the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery. People who have made this town their home, from more than a dozen countries across the world, shared stories of their journeys, the meaningful objects they hold dear and the recipes that connect their heritage to a new home in Hastings. This display will be open to the public from Tue 18th June.
This year Refugee Week will take place from 17th – 23rd June, offering an international programme of events exploring and celebrating Our Home: From the places we gather to share meals to our collective home, earth. The TRBP programme in Hastings, St Leonards and Bexhill will include 25 Creative Actions featuring art and fashion shows, craft, dance and writing workshops, film, food and gardening. Here are just some of the highlights this year:
Young people from East Sussex College (Hastings) Art and Design faculty will include works exploring the theme of Our Home in relation to displacement and safety, on show at the College, Station Plaza campus, from 14th – 17th June.
Watch street artist Abraham Osorio create a unique new mural in Trinity Triangle, celebrating our home and some of the people who make it, on 17-18th.
Have all your papers in order, for a testing Quiz Night at The St Leonard, hosted by award-winning stand-up comedian Charlie George on Wed 19th.
On June 20th, World Refugee Day, Your Banner Your Story created through the Stitch for Change project at the De Le Warr Pavilion, will be performed alongside an exhibition of art and ideas by the Young Creatives Collective. These ongoing partnership projects between TRBP and DLWP offer a space to share skills, stories and messages of hope and defiance, as those with lived experience of seeking refuge lead the way around the gallery.
We will come together for Solstice and Solidarity on Friday 21st for a community beach clean and picnic. Please bring your dish to share or enjoy a Palestinian dish by our community chef Roa al Madi, with friends and neighbours, music and dance at the Old Bathing Ground, W. St Leonards, on midsummer’s eve.
Witness a unique exhibition of photographs from Gazan homes, taken before Oct 7th, by Palestinian photographer Samar Abu Elouf on display at Electro Studios on 15th 16th, 21st, 22nd , 23rd June, 11-5.
St Leonards Ceramics Studio will hold a ceramics private view Fri 21st (6-9pm) then a sale and drop-in pottery-wheel workshop on and Saturday 22nd (10-5pm)
And on Saturday 22nd in the afternoon you can join in the RW celebrations in Bexhill, when the growing cultural quarter in Beeching Road offers open studios, workshops and some refreshment at Three Legs Brewery.
This inclusive public arts programme has become a regular feature of the Hastings Cultural Calendar, as an opportunity to counter hostility and refute anti-refugee rhetoric, by co-creating a safe sustainable and welcoming place for all. The full programme of events will be on our website from June 1, in local press and social media. Look out for the Refugee Week window sticker in participating venues across town.
TRBP Refugee Week is funded by Arts Council England and The Chalk Cliff Fund, with additional support from Legacy of War. The Young Creatives Collective is a collaboration between The Refugee Buddy Project, The De La Warr Pavilion, The Magnum Photo Foundation and The Peter Marlow Foundation with support from University for the Creative Arts, Kent.
