Supporting people seeking sanctuary is part of UAL’s commitment to being a social purpose university. We believe education should be accessible to all, regardless of circumstances. We recognise the role of creative practice in shaping understanding and connection.
Across our campuses, members of the UAL community have been actively involved in initiatives to support those seeking sanctuary and raising awareness of their unique needs. This includes:
- Partnerships: Collaborating with organisations that provide resources and support for sanctuary seekers, helping to bridge gaps and offer comprehensive support.
- Social purpose: Ensuring that our efforts to support sanctuary seekers are aligned with our broader mission of social responsibility and purpose-driven education.
- Community engagement: Participating in outreach programmes and initiatives that promote inclusivity. Provide practical support to sanctuary seekers in our local communities.
- Research: Conducting studies and projects that highlight the experiences of sanctuary seekers, informing better practices and policies both within and beyond UAL.
Sanctuary Teaching and Learning
Twinning Scheme with The National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture (NAFAA), Kyiv: Established in response to the war in Ukraine, this ongoing twinning partnership connects UAL with the NAFAA to share learning, ideas and resources. Alongside immediate support, it is designed to build long-term academic relationships that will contribute to the rebuilding of Ukraine’s higher arts education sector.
Fine Art, NAFAA Kyiv x Curating, Chelsea: Through a series of student-led exchanges MA Curating students at Chelsea collaborate with Fine Art students in Kyiv to develop a publication and exhibition presented in Chelsea, London. Building on earlier online exchanges, the project fosters sustained collaboration, solidarity, shared learning and lasting artist–curator networks.
Reframed Realities: UK/Ukraine: With LCC hosting students from NAFAA, this project brings together students and staff to explore culture as a form of resistance through visual storytelling. It concluded with an exhibition and window display at not just a shop presented as part of Refugee Week 2026, featuring photography, video, artist books, zines, and prints.
BA Animation x Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants: In this collaboration with the Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants, BA Animation students from LCC worked with participants to translate personal experiences of migration and displacement into animated works.
TexTALES: A collaborative fashion project bringing together students, artisans, and people with migration experience across Europe. Through tailoring workshops, participants co-created garments based on shared skills and stories, forming a travelling collection shown internationally, including Paris, Athens, and Italy.
The Live Brief Unit: As part of LCC’s BA (Hons) Photojournalism and Documentary Photography curriculum, students collaborate with refugee organisations to create socially engaged documentary work.
‘I Migrated’: An exhibition and public programme building on earlier teaching work, the project centres the voices and experiences of refugee women, presenting alternative narratives around migration and asylum in the UK. Alongside the exhibition, a programme of workshops, performances and discussions creates space for dialogue across audiences, practitioners and policy communities.
Fashion Practices for Social Change: A multidisciplinary elective unit at LCF bringing together students from diverse MA courses to collaborate with local refugee communities and explore the intersection of fashion, activism and global impact.
Refugee Journalism Project: This project at LCC supports refugee and exiled journalists in restarting their careers in the UK through training, mentorship, and industry connections.
Refugee Transition Network: Builds an international network of stakeholders and researchers exploring Transition Design and the concept of the city as commons to inform future approaches to urban refugee management.
Transition Living Lab: involves LCC’s MA Service Design students to collaborate with other higher education institutions working together to co-create design interventions that train migrants and refugees to become change-makers in their communities.
Sanctuary Research
Time-based Art Methodologies for Transnational Collaboration: A project bringing together students and staff from across Europe, including Ukraine, to explore collaborative art teaching. Through a week of workshops, participants create live and filmed work, combining learning and making while building teamwork and resilience in changing art contexts.
The Abundance Project: Funded by UKRI‑AHRC, The Abundance Project brings together the arts and health sectors to address mental health inequalities affecting Black, minority ethnic and refugee communities in Southwest London. The project explores how cultural and green spaces can support wellbeing.
Visible Justice: A transdisciplinary research hub at LCC bringing together artists, activists, writers, journalists, photographers, filmmakers and human rights lawyers. It creats space for collaboration across disciplines while questioning how visibility operates within systems of justice and representation.
Traces: Stories of Migration: A participatory research project at Centre for Sustainable Fashion exploring migration through collaborative visual arts practice. Working with community partners in East London, it brought together artists and participants to produce work shaped by lived experience.
Migrations and Climate – Antarctica World Passport: Presented at the National Museum of the History of Immigration in Paris, this work brings together scientific knowledge and arts practice while highlight the growing impact of climate-driven migration. It invites audiences to apply for a symbolic ‘world passport’, encouraging reflection on movement, borders and belonging.
The Live Brief: BA Photojournalism and Documentary Photography Unit: Photography students from LCC work with the Imperial War Museum Archive, developing creative responses to contemporary and historical conflict narratives.
Sanctuary Knowledge Exchange
UAx 2.0 at ELIA: the ELIA UAX Platform connects the University with a global network for higher arts education. UAL is the first UK university to hold ‘Supporting Member’ status in ELIA, which includes over 285 members in 54 countries, providing opportunities for international professional exchange and development. UAL actively engages in monthly sessions and UAx in person days, supporting Ukraine’s higher arts education through scholarships, mentorship and international collaboration.
Sanctuary in Politics: the Media School at LCC in collaboration with City of Sanctuary, offers an 8-week training course for people with lived experience of displacement. The intiative helps participants develop advocacy campaigns that promote positive representations of refugees in UK media.
Imperial War Museum (IWM) Partnership: this partnership has led to multiple knowledge exchange, research, and community engagement projects that focus on people's experiences of war, the causes of conflict and its impact on lives.
Vital Signs: Builds on Professor Helen Storey’s seven-year experience as UNHCR Designer in Residence at Zaatari Refugee Camp, Jordan, Mozambique, Malawi, and the wider Middle East and Africa. The project explores the intersection of design, science and humanitarian work.
Before We Had Money: BA Animation students at LCC, take part in knowledge exchange with Sahrawi participants from Sahrawi refugee camps to document the stories of older generations, contributing to films that explore cultural identity and are presented internationally.
Explore projects in our community
-
Figure 2. Ukrainian student leading movement workshop. Photo: Shiny Vallenas, 2025.
-
National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, Kyiv | Photo: Courtesy of National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture
-
‘A possible Banksy in Bristol’ 2022 by Malé Luján Escalante
-
'3rabi: A Designed Dialect Journal', Amira Zurgani, 2025 BA (Hons) Graphic Communication Design, Central Saint Martins, UAL
-
Visible Justice. Image © David Birkin
-
2024 Postgraduate Show, London College of Fashion, UAL | Photograph: Ana Blumenkron
-
Antarctic Village No Borders – Ephemeral Installation in Antarctica, Lucy + Jorge Orta, 2007
-
Abundance workshop | Illustration: Palak Garg
-
Afterall Journal, Issue 57 Cover
-
Co-creating Sanctuary Manifesto displayed at Deptford Lounge, Transition Living Lab, 2025
-
Traces: Stories of Migration - portraits by Lucy Orta at UAL East Bank, 2023| Photograph by Jack Elliot Edwards