On the first day of the ‘Hurdles Home’ Exhibition in Armley Mills Museum, we were very privileged to be visited by the new Lord Mayor, Councillor James McKenna. He listened intently to the students from Raynville Primary School and City of Leeds High School as they explained their paintings and what they had learned and spoke very highly of their achievements. He commented that “this fascinating exhibition shows the scale of the issues affecting asylum seekers and refugees. Seeing paintings by local children, about the work that local organisations do to help, puts the situation in perspective. It is good to see so many different groups working alongside each other towards the same aim.”
After the exhibition had been in the Armley Mills Museum for a few days, it moved to the Leeds City Museum and took centre stage in the Arena from Friday until Sunday. It was a fantastic success and was seen by approximately 550 visitors in just two days. On Friday we held a very successful dedication event attended by over 100 people. The pupils of both schools who had painted the pictures very bravely and eloquently described their painting and what they had learned. We want to congratulate all of the pupils from Raynville Primary School and City of Leeds School for their amazing enthusiasm and openness to learning about and from asylum seekers. And we would of course like to thank all the organisations for the time and energy that they put in to make it happen, the City Museum and Armley Mills Museums, Gadsby’s, Adam Knowles and the funders – West North West Area Committee, Refugee Council and Artforms.
The dedication event:
The paintings:
‘Far From Home’ was also exhibited in the Swarthmore Centre at the same time, featuring artwork by local refugees living in Leeds. For pictures of that exhibition, please see the ‘Far From Home‘ page.
There was an article in the Yorkshire Evening Post this week about the exhibition and another in the Leeds Guide which can be found here.
Hope you are enjoyed celebrating Refugee Week! Thanks for all your support.
