Compassion: Baltic x Refugee Week 2023

For the second year running, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art will take part in Refugee Week, the world’s largest arts and culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. Founded in 1998 in the UK and held every year around World Refugee Day on 20 June, Refugee Week 2023 is the initiative’s 25th anniversary.

Through a series of events, exhibitions and workshops, Baltic, a recognised Gallery of Sanctuary, will explore what compassion looks like in action. Baltic will seek to encourage a shared understanding of migration and how everyone can extend a welcome to those who have been displaced or seek sanctuary.

Baltic’s Level 5 Viewing Box walls will host the group exhibition Compassion, including work by nine artists who have each experienced displacement. Created in partnership with NE Rise, an organisation that supports refugees in the North East, the display invites you to explore the transformative potential of empathy, kindness, and understanding.

The artworks by Solomon Gebreyonas / Skekiba Lutfi / Mesgana Estifanos / Filiz Sustam Oylum / Rozita Yusof / Farnaz Taheri / Mina Moradi Kondor / Soheyla Bakhtiyari / Sepideh Hayati will be for sale via Baltic Shop (Ground Floor).

Each artwork in the exhibition is a testament to the strength and resilience of artists who have experienced displacement. Together, we can challenge the notion of who “deserves” to stay in the UK. The answer is clear: everyone. We are all inherently worthy, deserving of compassion, and capable of creating positive change.