Arts Projects
Scottish Refugee Council produces the Festival’s Artists Development Programme, which includes commissions, open call for artists and creatives, fellowships, as well as research and participatory projects.
Below is a selection of projects from recent Festival editions.
Arts Open (2024-26)
Arts Open was set up to help artists from refugee backgrounds show their work as part of Refugee Festival Scotland. Running over three years, the programme supported the work of Soloway Choir, Sadia Sikandar, Maryam Haddadi, Varvara Mishyna, Javad Daraei Saida Sadaf Zaidi, Alena Bezushko, Maimouna Ly and Makongo.
Grace Browne: All Water Is Connected (2026)
This public artwork, presented at The Hidden Gardens, pays tribute to how new lands welcome us and our homelands remember us.
Iman Tajik: The Remembrance Wall / The Wall of Loves (2026)
This participatory installation, created with communities across Scotland, takes the form of a dry stone-style wall built from hundreds of clay tiles, which are imprinted with hands.
Bircan Birol: Within the Fragments of Gurbet (2025)
Bircan Birol’s film explores the journeys of fellow migrants and refugees as they map their own version of Glasgow through places of loss, connection, and belonging.
Saffa Khan: To Gather (2025)
To Gather was a publication and community arts project facilitated and developed by artist Saffa Khan. It paid tribute to the libraries, community groups, and open spaces where newly arrived communities gather, are welcomed, and experience imaginative respite.
Cindy Islam: The Veil Between Worlds (2024)
The Veil Between Worlds by sound artist Cindy Islam was an audio/visual performance sharing an intimate understanding of the veil and its multiplicities.
Raising Voices (2024)
Raising Voices was a celebration of communities through song at the New Auditorium, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. The Joyous Choir, Soloway Choir and Harper African Voice came together for a unique performance, supported by an 18-piece ensemble from the RSNO orchestra.
Najma Abukar: Everyday Hope (2023)
Everyday Hope is a series of photographic portraits by artist Najma Abukar, accompanied by conversations with eight people who have lived experience of forced displacement and who are now settled in Scotland.
Paria Goodarzi and Francisco Llinás Casas: Amber (2021)
Amber was an interactive performance documenting a 23-mile walk from Dungavel Detention Centre to the Home Office in Glasgow. This work was commissioned by Scottish Refugee Council to mark the 70th anniversary of the Refugee Convention.
Manaf Halbouni: Rubble Theatre (2019)
Damascus-born Manaf Halbouni transformed part of Glasgow’s city centre for a whole week into a scene from his war-torn home nation.
Iman Tajik: Freedom of Movement (2019)
In spring 2019 we commissioned artist Iman Tajik to create two pieces of public art exploring freedom of movement.
Lest We Forget (2016)
In 2016 we worked with new and established Scots to research and document the arrival, reception and experiences of Belgian refugees in Scotland during the First World War.
A View From Here (2014)
A View From Here was a multi-disciplinary arts and heritage project telling the stories of new and local Scots living in two blocks of high flats in Glasgow.
