Art in Exile: Making Spaces – Part One

In October Chippenham Museum began a new project working with Ukrainian families, alongside a local artist, to produce a new artwork exploring Chippenham and the surrounding area as a place of refuge. The ‘Making Spaces’ project was inspired by the museum’s autumn exhibition of work by Peter Potworowski and the conservation of the painting by Charles Wellens discussed in our previous blogs.

To launch the project the museum invited local Ukrainian families and their hosts to an open evening at the museum. The evening provided an opportunity to explore the galleries and, with the aid of a local Ukrainian interpreter, discover the history of Chippenham and the surrounding area.

Guests at the Making Spaces Project leaving comments 

During the evening guests were encouraged to share and record stories and thoughts about the local area and their hometowns and cities.

“I really like the work of the artists … Thanks to them we can feel the emotions of the time … and compare with nowadays. Thanks for the possibility to feel these emotions.”

“The exhibition makes me feel interested in the past of the local area and compare with my native city. This is very important to make refugees feel more settled in the area and find our place in a new surrounding and society.”

Guests at the Making Spaces Project sharing stories

Working with a Ukrainian film maker, supported by media students from Wiltshire College and University Centre, many of these stories were recorded during the evening and will feature in a short film exploring the experiences of Ukrainian families in the area.

Several of the guest from Ukraine their returned to the museum for two workshops led by local Artist Anya Beaumont. Using wire, Anya worked with the participants to produce a representation of a local building that they had become familiar with or something from their home towns in Ukraine. The finished piece will combine these individual buildings into a merged townscape bringing the two places together, making their own space.

Representations of local and Ukrainian buildings made in wire by workshop participants