Through our community engagement programme we worked closely with refugees and migrants across Leeds and Wakefield, creating opportunities for all four galleries to welcome new and diverse audiences.
For this project The Hepworth Wakefield worked with Dominion Training and artist Emii Alrai. Dominion offers support and training to learners from across the world now living in Wakefield District, to develop their language and employability skills. Emii Alrai makes work which responds to her own Iraqi heritage, her experience growing up in the UK and the way museums display international artefacts.
In a series of workshops at The Hepworth Wakefield, up to 30 participants experimented with different materials including clay, plaster, gilding metals and steel. They made visits to Yorkshire Sculpture International partner galleries Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Leeds Art Gallery and Henry Moore Institute, responding to exhibitions and developing new vocabulary and confidence in talking about art.
The group’s work came together in a public display in an empty shop unit on Trinity Walk in Wakefield City Centre. Vessels was an exhibition celebrating the international connections between our histories, traditions and heritage. Inspired by everyday objects the works bring together cross-cultural identities and skills, shared between project participants and artist Emii Alrai.
Yorkshire Sculpture International has an extensive engagement programme, spanning education, community collaborations and artist support.
We explore sculpture with people of all ages, connecting them with the materials and processes used in making sculpture today and showing how sculpture can be found all around us. We are currently working with a group of 25 artists across Yorkshire as part of our 2022 Sculpture Network.
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