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Portsmouth City of Sanctuary has partnered with a range of creative organisations in the City, including Aspex Portsmouth, 432 Nomads (Majid Dhana and Rishky Patel) and Journeys Festival. These organisations and individual artists have formed a strong community of Portsmouth asylum seekers and refugees proud to showcase their creative talents alongside members of the local community. We are thankful to our funders, supporters and the local communities who come together to participate in many projects that promote the integration of refugees and asylum seekers.

Creative Partners:

Yellow Edge Gallery

We are delighted to partner with Yellow Edge Gallery in Gosport who is organising a programme of art workshops funded by Arts Council England, especially for people seeking sanctuary in Gosport. The programme will be taught by professional watercolour artist and illustrator Kevin Dean.

432 Nomads

Celebrating Portsmouth Refugee Week and Ports Fest 2023

Ports Fest 2023: Ignite the Phoenix

Portsmouth Refugee Week 2023

Dancing Through The Reigns of Fire

Portsmouth Creates

We Shine Festival – Through Our Eyes

Pooja Shah

Rangknit and Rangoli workshops at the Refugee Sanctuary Hub

Aspex Portsmouth

Aspex Portsmouth have been working closely with us on a number of creative projects for our community of people seeking sanctuary. They have run a weekly arts activity project at the PCoS Refugee Sanctuary Hub which was very successful. In addition, they have invited our community into their beautiful gallery to take part in projects that lead to exhibitions open to the public:-

Aspex Portsmouth Healing Now We Are Here,  Press article

Aspex Portsmouth – Playful,  Press article

Director of Aspex Jo Bushness talks about the project in this video.

DVMISSION Film Festival

In partnership with Action Asylum, a team of young asylum seekers has won the ‘Spirit of DVMISSION’ Award at the DVMISSION Film Festival for their film The Diamond Chronicles.

St Luke’s Church

Jubilee Celebration concert to mark the Queens Platinum Jubilee Celebrations. Local artists teamed up with local refugees and asylum seekers to create a fantastic cultural concert. We would like to thank – Majid, Rhisky, DrumNation, Africapella, Sen Sen, and Salsa Katanga all of whom are local musicians. We are thankful to the ARTS Council and HIWFC for the funding.  Read about the project in the Portsmouth News – Press article