Community Arts by ZK  delivered a project titled Syrian Stories, funded by The Hilden Charitable Trust and The University of Manchester’s Social Responsibility scheme.

We were thrilled to announce our collaboration with The University of Manchester and artist Ibukun Baldwin throughout the duration of this project.

This project was spanned over 5 weeks, working with a core group of Syrian refugees at the Chai Centre, Burnley.

 

Multidisciplinary artists and social practitioner Ibukun Baldwin lead the workshops and training for the participants on how to make hand-made products from scratch. The participants learnt how to create Lino prints and printing onto their desired fabric to create personal cushion covers that can be kept for themselves or sold with the help of Bukky Baldwin.

Allison Jeffers will be working alongside Ibukun. Allison is a Drama lecturer at the University of Manchester and her work is about everyday creativity and how ordinary people create wonderful pieces of art to express themselves and tell stories.

Allison is currently writing a book on this and will feature lots of different creative projects, with Syrian Stories being one of those used as research.

Through each session we provided a calm and relaxing time, exploring artistic methods at our own pace and allow open conversation for all women. The ladies loved sharing stories of their homeland Syria, and it was great to create deeper and meaningful conversations.

 

Through 'Syrian Stories' , we aimed to build community resilience, we wanted our participants to find the strength in sharing their stories, their memories and their new beginnings. We want to create an environment where everyone can feel safe, valued and empowered to pursue their dreams without fear or judgement.

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