Award-winning exhibition to be held during Refugee Festival Scotland.
Glasgow City Chambers is to host a pop-up exhibition of everyday objects that British and Greek people have donated to refugees who have fled violence and persecution.
The Museum Without A Home is an award-winning, free exhibition of small acts of kindness created by Oxfam and Amnesty International. The touring exhibition – which was originally shown in Athens in 2016 and since then in New York, Belfast, Belgrade and Ottawa – will run in Glasgow from Monday 18 June until Friday 22 June as part of Refugee Festival Scotland.
The items on display were given by British and Greek people to people in need of protection in Greece and the UK, to comfort them and help to make the difficulties of daily life more manageable.
They include a kettle, a toy car, some colouring books, a cooking pot and a backpack; items that may appear mundane but are deeply meaningful for the refugees who were given them by welcoming people on their arrival in a strange new country.
The exhibition has now gained a number of objects given by people in the UK to recently-arrived refugees, including a heart-warming ‘letter fae a local’ donated by Refuweegee.
Lisa Stewart, Campaigns and Communications Manager at Oxfam Scotland, said: “This exhibition is made up of everyday objects which all have a powerful story to tell: of despair, terror and exhaustion, but also of warmth, hospitality and humanity.
“It seems appropriate that the Museum Without A Home has found a home in Scotland; where we can be proud of our efforts to welcome refugees. This exhibition represents a real challenge to governments around the world to meet refugees with the same compassion and generosity; and to build bridges instead of barbed wire fences.”
Naomi McAuliffe, Amnesty International’s Scotland Programme Director, said: “People across Scotland have a long history of opening their arms, homes, and communities to welcome and show solidarity with some of the world’s most vulnerable people. The sharing of everyday items we think of as basic but to others are vital lifelines in traumatic times, reminds us how small acts can make a real difference.
“By bringing Museum Without A Home to Glasgow we have an opportunity to celebrate the richness refugees bring to our communities as well as remind governments of their moral and legal responsibilities to those fleeing conflict and persecution.”
Museum Without A Home will open at Glasgow City Chambers at 12pm on Monday 18 June.
—– ENDS —–
For more information, interviews or photographs please contact Rebecca Lozza, Media and Communications Officer, Oxfam Scotland, on 0141 285 8875 / 07880785159 or RLozza1@Oxfam.org.uk
NOTES TO EDITORS
- Museum Without A Home is a touring exhibition by Oxfam and Amnesty International showcasing real items donated by Greeks to refugees and migrants.
- Produced by creative agency Bold Ogilvy & Mather, the exhibition was originally launched in November 2016 in venues across Athens, including at the Acropolis.
- The ‘Museum Without A Home’ campaign won an award at the European Excellence Awards in Public Affairs, under NGOs & Associations category, and received two Gold Ermis Awards from Greece’s most prestigious advertising and communications body.
- Details of Oxfam’s humanitarian response in Greece are available here
- Details of Amnesty’s work with refugees and migrants are available here