School/Directorate: Cardiff School of Art and Design
Key theme: Links directly to support the University's Sanctuary status.
Impact and Achievements:
Cardiff School of Art and Design's Dr Keireine Canavan delivered a Textile and Natural Dye workshop to local refugees and asylum seekers from Oasis Cardiff, themed around Healing to tie in with the selected theme of Refugee Week. 11 participants attended the workshop from diverse countries including Morocco, Iraq, and elsewhere in the Middle East and Far East, and were also accompanied by Oasis staff member Glyn Owen. The workshop was also supported by a Masters student from the University. The workshop gave the participants the opportunity to see and experience a University campus and its facilities and take part in a meaningful session hosted by University staff. The session was designed so that attendees with different skill levels and experience could all participate equally.
The workshop consisted of experimenting with plant dyes including red and white onions, red cabbage and madder, working with different resist pattern making techniques including an African plaiting one. Keireine carefully selected all the materials and dyes used so that the visitors could continue to use their new skills at home. The participants were able to take the resist patterned fabrics and plain dyed cloth home with them and planned to use them in future stitch classes at Oasis; displaying to the wider community at Oasis what they had created during their session with Cardiff Metropolitan University.
As well as working in the Textile studios, Keireine showed the visitors the School's new dye garden where they were able to see the plants growing of dyes that they had used in the session. This prompted discussions about the carbon footprint of different dyeing techniques, along with the School's and University's commitments to carbon reduction. The participants were also taken on a tour of the School and the facilities. For many this was their first experience of a University campus.
The feedback from Oasis shows the impact the session had on the participants: "It was a fantastic session, all the participants had a great time. Keireine was brilliant and led the session really well. It was really wonderful that participants were able to explore the facility. For some of the participants, it was the first time they had seen or been to a University, so was an excellent experience."
The success of this workshop funded by Global Grants has led to Oasis Cardiff expressing an interest in collaborating on other similar sessions in future which could be offered to their service users. The impact and achievements of the session were widely disseminated by staff within CMET via Yammer, Twitter and LinkedIn, and also by staff at Oasis Cardiff via their Twitter and Facebook pages.