Never at Sea
The ‘Never at Sea’ project saw Dr Kate McMillan (Culture, Media & Creative Industries) collaborate with partners including Nicole Mennell (King’s Sanctuary), St Mary le Strand Church, and an international team of creative practitioners including artists and musicians. Together, they developed an immersive exhibition and performance program that explored the lived experiences of women who have faced forced migration.
Kate, an artist and specialist in the theory of creative practice, was drawn to the idea of creating an impact project informed by women’s lived experiences of displacement. In particular, she was moved by the possibility of exploring forced migrants’ experiences of journeys over the ocean, a theme that intersects with other pressing issues facing humanity such as climate change. Integrating these experiences into creative practice within the setting of a church, a space historically associated with spiritual release and sanctuary, offered a compelling platform for building these underrepresented communities into broader processes of cultural and artistic development.
A series of arts based-workshops focused on engaging women with experiences of forced migration to explore their journey through various multimedia including sound and expressive movement was held at the Science Galley London in spring 2023. The experiential exploration completed during the workshops served assisted in completing the final immersive film-based exhibition and performance, and a public program held at St Mary le Strand Church in June 2023. The public program included a series of talks with the artists, a symposium which invited cultural organisations from across London to share their arts-based methods and projects with migrants and displaced peoples. Work on the project continues, with the exhibition and performance being developed for presentation at Salisbury Cathedral in 2025.
For full details of the project, please see the PDF case study below.