Seeking Refuge Project

Seeking Refuge is a creative, collaborative project sharing the hidden voices of people who have been forced to flee their homes. Seeking Refuge brings together people seeking asylum in the UK, refugees and vulnerable migrants who have settled in Bournemouth, through creative activities facilitated by local artists.

"The idea for Seeking Refuge started when I read that by the end of 2019, there would be nearly 26 million refugees in the world, with half being children. It’s such an important issue, but after Brexit, the way refugees were talked about in the media often created more confusion than clarity.” - Caroline Beale Johnson, founder of the Seeking Refuge Project.

The Seeking Refuge Project was founded in 2021 by photographer Caroline Beale Johnson, with a mission to share the real stories of refugees and asylum seekers.

The initiative began as a photography project titled Seeking Refuge, in which 6 photographers worked collaboratively with local individuals who had settled in Bournemouth. The project provided people involved with the tools and confidence to share their stories with total agency, underpinning the wider ongoing work of Seeking Refuge as community project.

‍Threads

The Seeking Refuge Project has developed various community groups, including ‘Threads’, a weekly textiles group for international women.

Seeking Refuge’s first installation with Threads, The Stories We Thread, showcased 3 large fabric cyanotype prints, one of which a tapestry of pieced together images. Members of the Threads group worked collaboratively to sew these pieces together, each one representing the stories and journeys of all those who had fled their homes and communities. 

Threads’ second installation, A Seat at the Table, was a communal Community and Activism work of embroidered plates of food, inspired by the countries of people seeking refuge in the UK. The tablecloth, made from disused hotel bed sheets, is 11 metres long and represents food from 36 countries.

The Threads workshops have been facilitated by local artists Heidi Steller, Maddison Collymore, Beth Brickman, and Carmel De’Lisser.

Seeking Refuge Men’s Group

The Seeking Refuge Project's men's group has included music and photography workshops, garden volunteering sessions in The Orchard Garden, and cinema nights.

Seeking Refuge music workshops have offered a welcoming, safe, and inclusive space to create music together. Seeking Refuge photography workshops, run by project founder Caroline and local educator Lucy Kane, have ranged from analogue processes such as pinhole camera making, to digital shooting and studio lighting set up.

Also included in Seeking Refuge's Men's group are garden volunteering sessions in our community garden at TOSH. Throughout the years 2023-2024, members of this group came together to spend time in the garden, and become an integral part of our TOSH community. 

Seeking Refuge's Cinema Nights over in BEAF's sofa cinema at B.A.D. (Boscombe Arts Depot) started in 2022. The evenings have offered a relaxing space for asylum seekers and refugees to come together to enjoy some light entertainment, with hot drinks and snacks.

Workshops

Seeking Refuge workshops offer people seeking asylum, refugees and vulnerable migrants a space to come together to work creatively, while meeting new people. Workshops have taken the form of photography, textiles, music, and visual arts.

Currently, we run free women’s textiles workshops (Threads), meeting every Thursday at TOSH. We provide a supportive space, facilitating friendships and creative activities to enjoy over a cup of tea. 

If you or someone you know would like to join one of our workshops please email Caroline at caroline.bjohnson@recreatedorset.co.uk

‍

Term Dates for Community Groups at TOSH‍

Monday 8th September 2025 - Friday 19th December 2025

Monday 5th January 2026 - Friday 27th March 2026  

Monday 13th April 2026 - Friday 24th July 2026

‍
Schedule

Threads Workshops (Women’s Textiles):

Thursdays 12.30pm-2.30pm

Photography Workshops:

Enquire via caroline.bjohnson@recreatedorset.co.uk

TOSH, Gladstone Road, Boscombe BH7 6BG

Current Work

2025- Threads (Workshops)

Past Work

2024, A Seat At The Table (Exhibition)

2023, The Stories We Thread (Exhibition)

2021, Seeking Refuge (Exhibition)

Seeking Refuge is a collaborative photography project created by Caroline Beale Johnson, photographer, and founder of Seeking Refuge Project.

Having received a commission from BEAF Arts co for their 2020/2021 festival, Caroline mentored six photographers, each working with a local individual who had settled in Bournemouth. Taking time to build trusting relationships, the photographers produced collaborative images with their partnered individuals to communicate narratives through visual storytelling. The process allowed those involved to tell their stories however they wanted to, ensuring their voices were authentically represented. Providing people with the tools and confidence to share their own stories, with total agency, continues to underpin the work of Seeking Refuge as an ongoing community project.

Seeking Refuge Project’s first installation, The Stories We Thread, showcased 3 large fabric cyanotype prints, made by our Threads group of refugee women and asylum seekers. Viewers can explore a tapestry of pieced together images, including plants from the UK, maps of people’s hometowns, countries and precious objects. Threads members worked collaboratively to sew these images together, embellishing them with gold embroidery and thread, representing the stories and journeys of all those who have fled their homes and communities.

Following the success and the profound impact of this first project, the Threads group felt inspired to create a second installation that was just as meaningful. Enter ‘A Seat at the Table’.

A Seat at the Table is a communal Community and Activism work of embroidered plates of food, inspired by the countries of people seeking refuge in the UK who are currently staying in Bournemouth. The tablecloth, made from disused hotel bedsheets, is 11 metres long and represents food from 36 different countries. This work was collaboratively produced over many months, and celebrates the diverse cultures across our community of refugees and asylum seekers. 

Threads gratefully acknowledges support from: Dorset Community Foundation, Valentine Trust, the Alice Ellen Cooper Dean Trust and the People’s Health Trust.