Women who left Afghanistan to settle in North Yorkshire have taken part in a project aimed at engaging communities through education, art and storytelling.
The initiative is part of Refugee Week, which runs until Sunday, and celebrates the strengths of refugees and asylum seekers. It also aims to encourage understanding and positive links with the wider population with this year’s theme being ‘community as a superpower’.
The project formed part of a £25,000 scheme at Harrogate Royal Pump Room Museum made possible through the Government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF). The aim of the overarching scheme is to connect the museum to local communities and encourage visitors to the venue, which is run by North Yorkshire Council.
Working with Harrogate and Knaresborough District of Sanctuary and artist Amelia Hawk, the Royal Pump Room Museum hosted a series of creative workshops for Afghan women.
All of the women came to the country as part of the Government’s Vulnerable Persons and Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Scheme after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021.
The six-week project is based around the idea of coming together and sharing.
Each week, members of the group sat around a large communal table to work on a ‘dastarkhan’ or tablecloth. Over time this grew into a unique artwork and record of their time together.
One of the women, Nahid, said it had had “a profoundly positive impact”.
The women also worked with clay and glass painting to create other objects that have their place at the table such as plates, tea pots, cups, fruit and flowers.
Ms Hawk said:
Eating together is a way of bonding in all cultures, it’s an opportunity to learn more about one another, even in the smallest of ways.
In Western culture, this is often over a table where we make place settings. In other cultures, this may be a floor setting or rug where the giving of food can be more performative, passing, giving, choosing.
Either way this is a meeting point, a coming together.
North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for corporate services, Cllr Heather Phillips, whose responsibilities include stronger communities, said:
North Yorkshire is renowned for the warmth of its welcome and it is right that we open our doors to those fleeing war and persecution.
Projects such as this help bring communities together and foster greater understanding and I would encourage people to call into the museum and take a look at what has been created in the spirit of togetherness.
The tablecloth will be on display in the Mercer Art Gallery during Refugee Week and will be used as the centrepiece of a celebratory picnic.
The curator at The Royal Pump Room Museum, Karen Southworth, said:
We’re so pleased that the museum and its stories have been a starting point for such a creative project to welcome newly arrived neighbours and share some of the rich history of their new home.
