Wales: A Home from Home

This project and exhibition was instigated, researched, created and curated by Vision Vountain CIC (Community Interest company). We work with a variety of collaborators. If you’d like to learn more about our work – get in touch.

“Wales: A Home from Home” seeks to highlight the invaluable contributions migrants have made to Welsh society — particularly at a time when migration and migrants themselves are increasingly demonized in politics and the media.

Wales was officially designated a “Nation of Sanctuary”, in 2019, but its tradition of offering refuge dates back centuries and continues today. This exhibition brings together stories from Wales’ diverse global communities, from settled 2nd and 3rd generation migrants, including Italians, Somalis, and Yemenis. We have also included more recent arrivals such as Ukrainians, Syrians, and Hong Kongers.

While the project celebrates moments of joy and connection, it also gives voice to difficult memories: experiences of trauma, displacement, and the challenges of starting anew in an unfamiliar land. By weaving together these personal stories and images, the exhibition attempts to reveal how Wales continues to shape the lives of people from around the world.  

We have chosen to record and collect these powerful stories in all media: photo, video, print, oral history recordings, soundscape, virtual reality, and immersive video. Working with arts and gaming technologies ignites interest in young people.

One of Vision Fountain’s missions is inclusivity. Wales: A Home from Home has taken heritage workshops to people in the community who are sometimes overlooked. We have worked with additional learning needs (ALN) hubs in Cardiff and Caerphilly, with YMCA Young Carers, along with primary schools in Merthyr, the Rhondda Valley, the Afan Valley, and Newport Yemeni Community Association.

The young learners have had the opportunty to engage with immersive technologies, including 3D modelling, virtual reality and 360° video.   They have also created the artworks on display here, with help from artists Craig and Adele Lewis. The artworks are based upon the recorded stories, photos and lives of some individuals that were interviewed. 

Wales: A Home from Home – on tour

We will be taking a po-up version of the exhibition on the road. The pop-up will feature print, virtual reality and immersive video. If you have a venue that would be suitable for the touring version please get in touch.

For more information please contact: richard@visionfountain.com

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