Art of Belonging

This vibrant exhibition showcases the art created by students from NEST (Nottingham Education Sanctuary Team), a full-time educational provision for asylum seeker and refugees aged 15-19 years. These young people, many of them unaccompanied children, have worked with artists and the city’s cultural venues to consider what it is to ‘belong’ in a host city. What does it take to feel socially and culturally ‘at home’ and can the arts help in this process? As well as acquiring new art and design skills over 30 sessions, the participants have enlivened every workshop with their distinctive cultural contributions from Sudan, Eritrea, Iran, Afghanistan and other countries.

This is a University of Nottingham research project in partnership with Lund University, Sweden, and NAE. The Art of Belonging project is funded by JPI Urban Europe: Urban Migration/ ESRC/AHRC/FORMAS.