Tapestry of Voices
- Event
Tapestry of Voices is Art Voyage Biennial’s new major public art programme, awarded funding by Arts Council England with the National Lottery. The Project celebrates textile sculpture, preserves cultural heritage and expands public engagement with contemporary textiles.
Key Details
Community Textile Workshops
🗓️ May – October 2026
📍 Pan Intercultural Arts & Creative Health Camden, London
Mentoring and Creative Development
🗓️ November 2026
📍 Online
Public Exhibition
🗓️ 29 October – 15 December 2026
📍 Dandi Gallery, Battersea, London
Tapestry of Voices is a major artist-led textile and sculptural programme exploring textile practices as a living archive of migration, memory, and cultural identity. Bringing together contemporary artists and diaspora communities across Britain, the project inspires new textile sculptures, delivers workshops and mentorship, and culminates in a large-scale public exhibition in London in Autumn 2026.
The project is a eight-month heritage, research, and public art programme dedicated to preserving, documenting, and sharing textile traditions and personal histories of Asian diaspora communities in Britain, recognising their vital contribution to the UK’s cultural heritage.
Why it matters
Textile traditions carry stories of identity, migration, family and place, often passed between generations through making. Yet many of these practices and the knowledge they hold remain underrepresented within contemporary art and cultural spaces. Tapestry of Voices creates space for these traditions to be shared, reinterpreted and carried forward by:
- Bringing overlooked cultural stories and perspectives into view
- Connecting textile heritage with contemporary artistic practice
- Creating accessible opportunities for creative participation
- Supporting skills development, mentoring and professional opportunities
- Encouraging exchange across cultures and generations
- Preserving stories and creative processes through a lasting digital archive
Migration has shaped British cultural identity for generations, yet many of these stories remain invisible within public art and cultural institutions.
Tapestry of Voices responds by:
Expanding whose stories are represented in sculpture
Challenging traditional narratives of cultural heritage
Creating new models of artist-community collaboration
Making sculpture accessible to wider audiences
The Programme
The eight-month programme is delivered through three interconnected phases, supported by a digital archive that documents its stories, artworks and creative processes.
Phase 1 | Community-led Textile Workshops
May – October 2026
Phase 2 | Mentoring & Workplace Experience
Online, November 2026
Phase 3 | Public Exhibition & Legacy
29 October – 15 December 2026
Phase 1 | Community-Led Textile Workshops
May – October 2026
Pan Intercultural Arts, Creative Health Camden
Four artist-led workshop series will bring textile making, storytelling and creative wellbeing into local communities.
- Four lead artists: Divya Sharma, Zethu Maseko, Sarah Waters and Yahvi Duggal
- Textile practices: Felting, weaving, tapestry, soft sculpture and hand-stitching
- Creative focus: Exploring identity, memory and belonging through making and shared stories
- Community-led: Delivered in collaboration with local community groups
- Inclusive participation: Centring women who have experienced social, economic or cultural marginalisation, including migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women
- Supportive spaces: Combining practical skills with reflection, connection and wellbeing
Through hands-on making, textiles become both a creative skill and a tool for storytelling, connection and self-expression.
The Project will be delivered through 3 phases:
Phase 1: Community-led textile workshops
June – August 2026
Four series of textile workshops focused on developing practical and transferable skills in felting, weaving, tapestry techniques, soft sculpture, and hand-stitching, will be delivered for local community groups.
We have selected three lead artists whose practices centre on textiles, identity and community engagement to develop these workshops: Divya Sharma, Zethu Maseko, Sarah Waters and Yahvi Duggal. The workshops will combine practical textile processes with reflective discussions and wellbeing-centred activities, creating inclusive and supportive environments. Participants will explore storytelling through making, sharing personal and collective narratives.
Our workshop delivery will centre women who have experienced social, economic, or cultural marginalisation, including migrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking women. Many face systemic barriers to creative opportunities, feelings of displacement, and limited access to safe cultural spaces.
This phase positions textiles as both a skilled discipline and a contemporary storytelling practice.
These workshops will be delivered with 4 different artists collaborating with community groups
Workshop Facilitators
Phase 2 | Mentoring and Workplace Experience
Online, October 2026
A month-long mentoring programme supporting participants to develop their creative practice, professional skills and understanding of the cultural sector.
- Creative development: Technical and creative guidance to develop new work for exhibition
- Professional skills: Portfolio development, curatorial knowledge and sector awareness
- Exhibition preparation: Practical support with project management and presenting work
- Peer learning: Opportunities to exchange ideas, experiences and knowledge
- Industry connections: Networking and greater insight into professional opportunities
- Visibility: Promotion of participants and their work through Art Voyage’s platforms
The programme provides free, accessible pathways for participants to build confidence, develop their practice and explore longer-term opportunities in the arts.
Phase 2: Mentoring and Workplace experience
Online, October 2026
Participants progress into a month of online mentoring, developing curatorial literacy, portfolio readiness and sector awareness. They will have access to free mentorship pathways designed to extend their artistic development and create long-term opportunities. These programmes recognise the diverse needs, capacities, and ambitions of participants, offering both open-access support and an intensive, selective track.
Each mentee will receive support through peer learning, technical and creative guidance to help them develop new works for exhibition, practical training in project management and exhibition preparation, networking sessions, and visibility and promotion through Art Voyage’s channels.
Phase 3 | Public Exhibition and Legacy
29 October – 15 December 2026
Dandi Battersea Galley
Haydon Way, London SW11 1YF
The programme culminates in a public exhibition bringing together textile works developed through the workshops and mentoring programme alongside works by five invited artists.
Participating Artists:
Alice Burnhope · Divya Sharma · Holly Hallawell · Sarah Waters · Yahvi Duggal
- Public exhibition: Showcasing works by five artists alongside new works developed through the programme
- Shared themes: Exploring intergenerational memory, identity and cultural resilience
- Public programme: Workshops, talks and guided tours encouraging wider participation and dialogue
- Digital legacy: Documenting the artworks, stories and learning from the programme
- Shared learning: A stakeholder roundtable supporting reflection and future development
The exhibition brings artists, participants and communities together, creating a platform for diverse stories, practices and experiences
Phase 3: Public Exhibition and Legacy
29 October – 15 December 2026
The programme culminates in a public exhibition, presenting new textile works created through the workshops and mentorship programme, and pieces by selected invited artists. Together, these works will highlight shared themes of intergenerational memory and cultural resilience.
Public workshops, talks and tours expand access and engagement, while a digital archive and final stakeholder roundtable ensure learning is shared and sustained.
Exhibition Venue
Our exhibition will be held at the Dandi Battersea Gallery space
Dandi Gallery is supported by Schoeni Projects as their cultural partner
About the Project
Tapestry of Voices is a six-month heritage, research, and public art programme dedicated to preserving, documenting, and sharing textile traditions and personal histories of Asian diaspora communities in Britain, recognising their vital contribution to the UK’s cultural heritage.
Textile practices such as embroidery, weaving, and stitching have played an important role in the lives of many individuals and families who migrated to Britain over the past century. These practices hold stories of migration, settlement, identity, and belonging, forming an important yet often underrepresented part of Britain’s social and cultural history. Much of this knowledge exists only in personal and family contexts and is at risk of being lost as generations pass.
Through workshops and artist-led sessions, participants will share their experiences, learn traditional and contemporary textile techniques, and contribute to the creation of new sculptural works inspired by their heritage and life in Britain.
The programme will culminate in a free public exhibition in London in Autumn 2026, presenting textile sculptures alongside community-created works and recorded stories. This exhibition will provide opportunities for wider audiences to engage with and learn about this important aspect of Britain’s cultural heritage.
By preserving skills, stories, and creative practices, Tapestry of Voices will help safeguard the heritage of communities who have shaped Britain’s cultural identity, ensuring it is recognised, valued, and accessible for future generations.
Phase 1: Community-led textile workshops
June – August 2026
Three series of textile workshops focused on developing practical and transferable skills in felted forms, fibre manipulation, weaving with recycled materials, tapestry techniques, soft sculpture and hand-stitching.
This phase positions textiles as both a skilled discipline and a contemporary storytelling practice.
Phase 2: Mentoring and Workplace Experience
July – August 2026
Participants progress into a month of online mentoring, developing curatorial literacy, portfolio readiness and sector awareness.
Following which participants take part in a one-month workplace experience, gaining hands-on experience in exhibition planning, artwork handling and studio support alongside Art Voyage’s curatorial team and lead artists.
Phase 3: Public Exhibition and Legacy
October 2026
The programme culminates in a two-week public exhibition, presenting new textile works created through the workshops and mentorship programme, and pieces by selected invited artists.
Public workshops, talks and tours expand access and engagement, while a digital archive and final stakeholder roundtable ensure learning is shared and sustained.
Stitching memory with Paloma Tendero
Stitching Memory is a hands-on workshop led by Paloma Tendero, exploring the relationship between memory, identity, and material. Participants will learn how to hand stitch into paper and photographs, gaining an introduction to a range of stitches and techniques that expand traditional textile practices into new and unexpected surfaces.
Drawing on Paloma’s artistic practice, which explores themes of genetic inheritance, illness, and the ways personal and family histories shape identity across generations, the workshop invites participants to reflect on their own memories and experiences. Through stitching, participants will explore how images and materials can carry emotional and historical meaning.
By the end of the session, each participant will have created a unique stitched artwork that blends memory, image, and material. The workshop builds confidence in alternative textile techniques while demonstrating how craft can serve as a powerful medium for storytelling, reflection, and contemporary artistic expression.
Award-winning multi-disciplinary artist and workshop facilitator, Zetha works across tapestry-making techniques including punch needle, embroidery, tufting, weaving and sewing. Her practive is grounded in hydrofeminist and ecofeminist approaches to land, body and archive.
Explores themes of genetic inheritance, illness, and their impact on identity and life’s timelines. Drawing on personal experience with genetic illness, Paloma investigates the complex interplay between past generations and the ways the influence and shape the present and the future.
Textile artist working in feltmaking that originates from her love of sheep. Using both traditional and innovative techniques she aims to show the diversity and qualities feltmaking can be taken to. Using British Wool, which lends itself to a variety of disciplines within the textile world.
Artists
Alice Burnhope
Alice Burnhope is an award-winning textile artist whose practice explores sustainability, social engagement and sensory experience. Through immersive textile installations and experimental wearable art, she creates tactile experiences that encourage connection with ourselves, communities and the natural world. Her work has been exhibited across the UK and internationally, including at Arthouse Jersey, the Hayward Gallery and Alexandra Palace.
Divya Sharma
Divya Sharma is a London-based British Indian artist whose embroidered tapestries explore identity, cultural hybridity and indigenous knowledge systems. Combining embroidery, tufting and weaving, her practice reflects on the experience of living between different cultures, spaces and languages. A Royal College of Art graduate, her work has been selected for exhibitions including Collect Open and Wells Contemporary.
Elham Shafaei
Elham Shafaei is an Iranian multidisciplinary artist and curator based in the UAE. Her experimental practice spans painting, papermaking, photography, installation, textiles, sound and video. Alongside her artistic practice, she is Co-Founder and Co-Editor of Contemporary Identities and works as a curator and art mentor at Nexus Artspace.
FARIBA BOROUFAR
Fariba Bourifa is an Iranian weaver and fibre artist whose sculptural practice draws on vernacular architecture and endangered building traditions. Trained in sculpture at the Tehran School of Fine Arts (1993), she later completed a BA in Graphic Design and an MA in Illustration at the University of Art, Tehran (2004). Her early career in print media and children’s publishing shaped a strong visual and narrative sensibility.
Holly Hallawell
Holly Hallawell is a London-based textile artist specialising in hand-weaving. Inspired by natural forms such as roots and rock strata, she creates abstract, textural tapestries using an intuitive approach to weaving. Incorporating natural fibres and foraged materials, her work explores our connection with the natural world and the interconnectedness of all life.
Laleh Memarardestani
Laleh Memarardestani is a Tehran-based multidisciplinary artist working across drawing, painting, printmaking and textile art. Her practice moves between abstraction and reality, using drawing as a central means of expression to explore transformation, form and simplicity. Her work has been exhibited in Iran and internationally.
Sarah Waters
Sarah Waters is a contemporary textile artist specialising in feltmaking, with a deep connection to sheep, wool and the landscape. Her work explores our relationship with the land through layers, fluidity and natural forms, while reflecting on sustainability and the longevity of the environments we inhabit.
Yahvi Duggal
Yahvi Duggal is an Indian textile artist based in London and founder of Peel Studio. Her practice transforms kitchen waste, deadstock yarns and natural fibres into biomaterials, natural dyes and handwoven textiles, drawing on traditions of repair and resourcefulness to explore memory, care and value. She holds an MA in Textiles from the Royal College of Art.
PARTNERS
Creative Health Camden
Creative Health Camden is a pioneering charity supporting arts and community initiatives within Kentish Town Health Centre in North London. They work at the intersection of community, health and the arts to engage individuals with creative and social activities that explore their individual wellbeing.
PAN INTERCULTURAL Arts
Pan Intercultural Arts works across ethnic, cultural and faith boundaries to encourage understanding, integration and empowerment throughout our diverse society. They are driven by a desire to improve the lives of young people within our communities and to bring the healing power of the arts to those who have suffered trauma or social injustice.
DANDI x schoeni projects
Dandi is a modern co-living property developer, offering a unique architectural style. Their work already spans over four London sites, including their own London based manufacturing facilities. Dandi have recently opened an impressive exhibition space at their Battersea location with Schoeni Projects as their cultural partner.
calico libraries
Calico Projects offers library services and community facilities to the people of South East London. They run Forest Hill, Manor House, Sydenham, and Crofton Park libraries. We are working with them to host workshops during Tapestry of Voices.
THIS Project has been awareded funding from Arts Council England
Public Exhibition [July 2026]
The programme culminates in a three-week public exhibition celebrating community creativity and global perspectives. Works by participants will be displayed alongside those of the three lead workshop facilitators, Zethu Maseko, Sarah Waters, and Paloma Tendero, and guest artists Fariba Bourfar, Mustafa Boga, Divya Sharma, with more artists to be announced in the lead-up to July 2026.
This exhibition is a free, inclusive event, highlighting the power of textiles to carry voices, stories, and connections across generations and cultures.
Join us & Support Creatives
Your donation to Tapestry of Voices directly supports the creation of new sculpture and emerging artists while empowering underrepresented women, young people, and diaspora communities to share their stories.
By contributing, you help preserve cultural heritage, amplify unheard voices, and ensure these narratives are seen, valued, and carried forward for future generations.
Learn more about how to get involved here
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