Amnesty International UK x Refugee Week

Amnesty International UK x Refugee Week

A collaborative art show celebrating home.

LATE EVENT

Thursday 20 June 2024

Home / What's on/ Amnesty International UK x Refugee Week

Welcoming Amnesty International UK for a special event to mark Refugee Week 2024. An Open Night event at William Morris Gallery.

Join Amnesty International UK for an evening of shared art and celebration at the Gallery.

What does home mean to you? Get involved in a collaborative workshop exploring home, journeys and solidarity, facilitated by artist Tasnim Mahdy.

The whole Gallery will be open late, to explore the collections, Art Without Heroes exhibition and to enjoy a drink at Deeney’s Café (bar). All welcome.

Presented as part of Refugee Week: The world’s largest arts and culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees. www.refugeeweek.org.uk

The theme for Refugee Week 2024 is “Our Home”. From the places we gather to share meals to our collective home, planet earth: everyone is invited to celebrate what our Our Home means to them.

A group of people working on embroidery.

Making Home

A collaborative embroidery for Refugee Week

WORKSHOPS

Saturday 22 June 2024

Home / What's on/ Making Home

Join community residents Stories & Supper to make your mark on a collective home-themed embroidery for Refugee Week.

Celebrate Refugee Week and contribute to a collaborative embroidery on the theme of home. Add a word, an image or just a stitch to help us reimagine what home means. Plus, enjoy pop-up poetry readings while you sew.

This is a chance to get to know the Stories & Supper community of refugees, people seeking asylum and local residents, currently in residence at the William Morris Gallery.

All materials will be provided. Suitable for all ages (children must be supervised). No previous experience of embroidery necessary. All stitches, no matter how simple, are welcome!

Taking place on the Gallery’s first floor Landing.

Read more about our community groups in residency.

Presented as part of Refugee Week: The world’s largest arts and culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees. www.refugeeweek.org.uk

The theme for Refugee Week 2024 is “Our Home”. From the places we gather to share meals to our collective home, planet earth: everyone is invited to celebrate what our Our Home means to them.

If you’re visiting to participate in this event, you can also drop in to Winn’s Gallery (in Lloyd Park) to see Home: An exhibition. Including new work from the Stories & Supper community of refugees and asylum seekers, photo portraits by Laura Martinez, plus work from students at Leyton Sixth Form College. You can visit from 11am to 5pm from 21 to 23 June.

Creative Health Late

For Creativity and Wellbeing Week 2024

LATE EVENT

Thursday 23 May 2024

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Find out more about the local creative health offer available to Waltham Forest residents.

We’re proud to be taking part in this year’s Creativity and Wellbeing Week. At this special event we’re welcoming two groups, who will be introducing their work in the borough.

In the Café you’ll find SnugArt, a peer supportive community for individuals facing mental health challenges. SnugArt, hosted by CREST Waltham Forest, a local charity with a 29 history of supporting mental health of local residents, offers a safe space for individuals to explore their emotions and experiences through various artistic mediums.

On our first floor Landing, local music charity Soundcastle welcomes over 50s wanting to discover how learning to play an instrument and singing can improve mental health. Soundcastle runs regular music sessions to support wellbeing through creative music-making.

Meet, chat and enjoy a taster session with each group.

6-8pm. Free. Drop-in sessions.

This event launches a new strand of programming at William Morris Gallery, focused on embedding health and wellbeing through creativity. Watch out for more events and activities this summer. Organised in partnership with London Borough of Waltham Forest Public Health Social Prescribing team.

Family Day

Nature's Touch: Handcrafted Pinch Pot Workshop

WORKSHOPS

Saturday 22 June 2024

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Join artist Noriko Nagaoka and create your own air-dry clay pinch pot, inspired by the ceramics in the Art Without Heroes: Mingei exhibition.

Embrace the harmony of nature and the timeless artistry of ceramics showcased in the Art Without Heroes: Mingei exhibition by crafting your own unique pot to treasure. Decorate your creation with delicate pressed flowers and fabric fragments, infusing it with your personal touch.

While we’ll provide all the materials that you’ll need, we encourage you to bring along any special pieces you’d like to incorporate into your design. You can also explore your artistic flair with our selection of carving tools, allowing you to carve intricate patterns and further personalize your masterpiece

The activity is suitable for children aged 5+ years.

All materials will be provided.

Activities will take place in Gallery on the Second Floor learning rooms

All children must be accompanied by an adult.

Apple wallpaper featuring apples and foliage. In red, blue and white.

Curatorial Interpretation

Professional Development Course for Young People

TRAINING COURSE

Monday 22 - Friday 26 July 2024

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A professional development opportunity for adults aged 18-25.

William Morris Gallery, with support from National Heritage Lottery Fund, is offering adults aged 18-25 the opportunity to take part in a curatorial interpretation professional development course, inspired by the temporary exhibition launching at the Gallery in November 2024. William Morris and Art from the Islamic World introduces William Morris’s personal collection of artworks from the Islamic world and how they came to influence his pattern-making. The exhibition is co-curated by Rowan Bain and Qaisra Khan.

We are looking to recruit 20 people with an interest in this exhibition to enhance the online interpretation of objects and stories in the exhibition. This five-day professional development opportunity will be run by Shaheen Kasmani.

Over the course of five days, you will work in groups with Shaheen Kasmani and the William Morris Gallery team to create your own online interpretation of objects from the exhibition. The opportunity will include having access to professional specialists who can provide critique and guidance on your work. The opportunity also includes a museum visit and career advice from leading sector specialists.

We want to create space for young Muslims or young people with Muslim heritage and we will be prioritising these applicants.

About Shaheen Kasmani

Shaheen Kasmani is an artist, creative producer, curator and educator. With a MA in Visual Traditional & Islamic Arts, her interests lie in narratives around coloniality and heritage, art, architecture and patterns. Shaheen was the lead curator for the Ramadan Pavilion at the V&A Museum, and co-curated The Past is Now exhibition at Birmingham Museum, has exhibited her work in the UK and Europe, guest lectures at universities in the US, and was published last year. Shaheen has worked with universities, museums, schools, community groups, art collectives, CICs and independently to deliver Teacher CPD, classes, workshops, publications, courses, lectures and exhibitions, and is passionate about centering overlooked narratives and all things creative.

Supporters and partners

Family Day

Sashiko & Tsumugi

WORKSHOPS

Saturday 18 May 2024

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With Tomo Yoshizawa and Mika Sembongi.

For May’s Family Day we have a full day of activities starting on Saturday morning!

Tsumugi weaving is a traditional Japanese craft inspired by the Mingei movement and developed by Living National Treasure Munehiro Rikizo. Join Munehiro’s granddaughter Tomo Yoshizawa for a deep dive in the design process of these unique textiles, as she showcases sketchbooks, weaving designs and sample threads alongside fabric from the Munehiro workshop. This is talk and demonstration (non participatory) from 10am to 12pm.

Then at 1pm, textile artist Mika Sembongi is hosting family sashiko workshops. The term sashiko means ‘little stabs’. Traditionally used for reinforcing or repairing clothes and damaged fabrics, the sashiko technique is now often used for decoration. Our Art Without Heroes: Mingei exhibition has some beautiful examples of sashiko, used to decorate a kimono and increase the durability of a pair of boots and clothing worn by rural workers. Mika will introduce this artform and teach you how to make a sashiko bookmark to take home.

Activites are suitable for children aged 5+ years.

All materials will be provided.

Activities will take place in Gallery on the First Floor Landing

All children must be accompanied by an adult.

Mini Morris

Little Birdie Stitch

WORKSHOPS

Thursday 16 May 2024

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Mini Morris. Toddler-friendly crafting for 2-5 year olds.

Discover the work of May Morris and create an embroidery piece using hessian scrim. Inspired by the birds in one of May Morris’s designs, we’ll be practicing our stitching skills and creating a piece of embroidery to take home.

Mini Morris sessions are now DROP IN ONLY.

Morning Session: 10am – 11.30am

Afternoon Session: 1pm – 2.30pm

As this can be a messy session, please wear or bring old clothes. Aprons are available. All sessions include a tour of the Gallery, the craft activity, singing and snack time. Drop in with limited capacity. Please arrive on time and sign up at the front desk.

Please note: One adult per 2 children.

Dementia-Friendly Tour

of Art Without Heroes: Mingei

SPECIAL EVENTS

Monday 13 May 2024

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A special event for Dementia Action Week 2024.

Art Without Heroes: Mingei is the most wide-ranging exhibition in the UK dedicated to Mingei, the influential folk-craft movement that developed in Japan in the 1920s and 1930s. With works including ceramics, woodwork, paper, toys, textiles, photography and film, the exhibition will incorporate unseen pieces from significant private collections in the UK and Japan, along with museum loans and historic footage from the Mingei Film Archive.

Organised in partnership with Waltham Forest Council’s Intensive Dementia Outreach Service as part of Dementia Action Week 2024 (13th – 19th May), William Morris Gallery would like to invite people affected by dementia to a ticket-only curator-led tour of this exciting new exhibition.

The Gallery staff have received Dementia Friends training and a member of the Outreach Service will be on-hand to support the tour.

Please note that this event is free and is ticket only.

Film Night

The Lotus and the Swan

FILM

Thursday 27 June 2024

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Join us for the UK premiere screening of Nirmal Chander’s The Lotus and the Swan.

For the Gallery’s June Film Night, see Nirmal Chander’s documentary The Lotus and the Swan, spotlighting the inspiring tale of Sardar Gurcharan Singh, founder of Delhi Blue Pottery in India. Afterwards, you will have a chance to see his work on display as part of our Art Without Heroes: Mingei exhibition.

The Lotus and the Swan (2023)

Directed by Nirmal Chander. Produced by Delhi Blue Pottery Trust.

“Hands destined to mould a thing of beauty”.

Thus wrote James Cousins, eminent writer, of a young Sikh potter he met in Japan in 1922. The film celebrates the life and legacy of Sardar Gurcharan Singh, the father of studio pottery in India. Daddyji, as he came to be fondly called, introduced the underpaid and undervalued craft of pottery to the imagination of the Indian masses with plates, jugs and teapots, ensuring that colour and beauty are accessible to everybody.

71 mins. With English subtitles.

About Nirmal Chander:

Nirmal Chander has worked in the field of non-fiction since 1996 as editor, director and producer. He has directed more than 10 documentaries and has over thirty editing credits. His films have travelled to many international festivals, winning multiple awards and receiving appreciation for their choice and presentation of characters, storytelling skills and humanistic approach. Some of his films have been telecast on BBC Online and Indian TV channels such as NDTV and Doordarshan. He is the recipient of three National Film Awards from the President of India for excellence in cinema and his documentary Moti Bagh was an Oscar entry from India in 2019.

This event forms part of the Mingei on the Move public programme, designed in response to the Gallery’s Art Without Heroes: Mingei exhibition. The programme spotlights the diasporic nature of Mingei and why artists from all cultures and backgrounds are continually inspired by the movement’s ethos.

Image: Still from The Lotus and the Swan, Nirmal Chander

The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer by Kelmscott Press.

Mini Morris

We love books!

WORKSHOPS

Thursday 18 April 2024

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Mini Morris. Toddler-friendly crafting for 2-5 year olds.

In April we’re sharing William Morris’s love of books. Did you know he wrote one of the longest poems in the English Language? He set up his own printing company and produced beautifully designed books. Join us to make a print block based on the tale of Chanticleer and the Fox from the Kelmscott Chaucer to print on a small bag.

Mini Morris sessions are now DROP IN ONLY at both 10am and 1pm. FREE. Donations welcome.

As this can be a messy session, please wear or bring old clothes. Aprons are available.

All sessions include a tour of the Gallery, the craft activity, singing and snack time

Event category: Audience