Storytelling, memory and clay workshop

A reflective and creative workshop exploring identity, memory, belonging, and the ways movement and change shape our lives. Open to everyone, this special Refugee Week edition creates space to reflect on personal journeys while recognising the resilience, stories, and cultural contributions of refugee and migrant communities.

Through storytelling, guided reflection, and hands-on clay work, participants will explore how memories, places, and transitions influence identity and connection. The workshop combines storytelling practices led by Andrea with a therapeutic object-memory making experience facilitated by Sasha in a welcoming ceramic studio environment designed for creativity, conversation, and connection.

Participants are invited to bring a small meaningful object with texture or pattern that can be pressed into clay, such as lace, woven fabric, jewellery, or other textured keepsakes. Using these objects, participants will create a handmade plaster relief that captures traces of personal history through texture and form.

The workshop explores how objects can hold stories, emotions, and connections across time, places, and experiences of movement. Inspired by Refugee Week’s themes of connection and shared humanity, the session invites participants to consider belonging, adaptation, and the invisible stories we carry with us.

No previous experience is needed, only curiosity and openness to create alongside others.

Participants will leave with:

• A handmade plaster relief inspired by a personal object
• Reflections on memory, identity, and belonging
• A shared creative experience rooted in community

Andrea Dos Anjos
Andrea is a community organiser, facilitator and narrative practitioner working at the intersection of migration, identity, and participation. As a Venezuelan migrant based in the UK, her work is grounded in lived experience. She designs spaces where people can explore their stories, reflect on belonging, and build shared understanding, supporting organisations and communities to move from engagement to shared ownership.

Sasha Porter
Sasha is an artist and adult education tutor with lived experience as a refugee. She has facilitated therapeutic clay workshops that use creative practice as a way to support reflection, connection, and self-expression. Passionate about inclusive education, Sasha believes learning is a shared exchange where everyone brings knowledge and experience. Her work highlights the importance of community, creativity, and mutual understanding.

Andrea and Sasha are volunteers with Bath Welcomes Refugees, and all proceeds from the workshop will support the charity’s work with refugee communities in Bath and beyond.

is the world’s largest arts and culture festival celebrating the creativity, resilience and contributions of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. From 15–21 June, Bath will join this celebration with events taking place across the city, bringing people together through creativity, culture and conversation.

is a small but dynamic and inclusive charity. Volunteer-led and non-partisan, our mission is to facilitate the settlement and the path to independence of those who come to us seeking refuge. We are local people working directly with refugees and asylum seekers to build new lives. You can support their work here!

The event will take place in the , the largest and most diverse creative workspace in Bath and North East Somerset. With over 50 studios and more than 60 artists under one roof, they provide a vibrant, supportive environment where painters, sculptors, printmakers, illustrators, photographers, ceramicists, and makers can thrive.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Bath Welcomes Refugees