We're celebrating women's experiences and sharing our cultures in Sunderland
A special exhibition in Sunderland city centre told the stories of Eastern European women’s journeys of migration to the city.
The exhibition, hosted by the International Community Organisation of Sunderland (ICOS) in the EXPO Pavilion in Keel Square, was supported by arts organisation The Cultural Spring.
The exhibition featured work by the women of ICOS produced in workshops led by artist Sabina Sallis.
Emma Biggins, Community Engagement Co-ordinator at The Cultural Spring, explained: “We’ve been working with ICOS for several months through our Community Arts Research Programme, through which ICOS hosted a popular stall at the Sunderland Food and Drink Festival.
“Led by Sabina, the group explored their heritage through creating artwork, exploring nature as well as cooking and sharing traditional Polish food together.
“The exhibition was the next step, and we’re now supporting ICOS through our A Space to Create project and through our Community Cohesion Project.”
The women’s shared experiences have led to new friendships, uncovered hidden talents and led to the formation of a new artists’ group – the Pieroginie Collective, derived from pierogi, the Polish word for dumplings.
Agnieszka Cielecka, senior project worker at ICOS, said: “Our workshops at the EXPO Pavilion replicated the work we do with Sabina. We want to share our cultures with Sunderland. We had a great experience at our food stall at the food and drink festival and we said we had two further ambitions – to create a cookbook and develop an exhibition of our artwork, which we’ve done.”
Julia Wysocka, Community Development Officer with ICOS, added: “We’re grateful to The Cultural Spring and Sunderland City Council’s events team for enabling us to put on our exhibition at the Pavilion.
“We’ve enjoyed sharing the artwork we created through Sabina’s classes, and we added to the pieces over the weekend of the exhibition.
“Much of our artwork was based on the theme goddesses – the collective’s name pieroginie is based around goddesses. We also used our backgrounds and personal memories of growing up in our respective towns and cities.
“Our artwork explores creativity, community and identity through an Eastern European lens.
“There was also the opportunity for the public to contribute to add to our window display so it became a living exhibition.”
Emma said: “Passers-by were interested in the artwork and what the women were doing in the Pavilion, and there was the opportunity to share stories and cultures.
“ICOS is a busy and engaged group of women from around the world and we are delighted to offer them continued support through various projects of ours.”
Members of ICOS are predominantly from Eastern Europe, Poland in particular, but members are also from other countries, including Thailand.
The exhibition was made possible through support from Sunderland City Council as well as The Cultural Spring.
The Cultural Spring is funded by Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places programme and works to increase the number of people participating in arts and culture in Sunderland.
The Cultural Spring’s A Space to Create and Community Cohesion projects are part funded by UKSPF & Community Recovery Fund.