Belonging

Exhibition, Events & Music | 8am-10pm, 27-31 October 2025

The Agora, Faculty of Arts Building, University of Warwick

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What does it mean to belong?

In our society, more individualistic and commercial than ever, belonging, both to a community and an identity, seems further away than ever.

This exhibition seeks to give a platform to those exploring this theme from a variety of angles, exploring the challenges faced by the Windrush generation, the isolation created by technology and the idea of art as an act of collaboration, among many others.

The University of Warwick’s rich diversity and status as a global centre for cultural learning enables a broad conversation on what we can do to create a new sense of belonging.

Group of seven people standing on a stage during an event or presentation, with artwork hanging on the background wall.
A group of people socializing at an indoor event, two women in black shirts with 'Creatives Institute' holding glasses and smiling, surrounded by others engaged in conversation.
Three people smiling at the camera at an indoor event, with a wooden wall and staircase in the background; a woman on the left holding a glass and a blanket, a man in the middle, and a young man on the right.
Three people engaged in conversation at an indoor event, with one holding a glass of champagne.
People attending an art exhibition at the Creatives Institute, with artwork displayed on the walls and a sign in the foreground.
People talking and mingling at an indoor social event or gathering, with some holding drinks and smiling.
A group of seven people standing together in front of an art display at an event titled 'Creatives Institute' displayed on a screen above them.
People attending event inside a building, some are taking photos or looking at their phones, with a mix of young adults and older individuals.
Two young men with curly hair as they stand in an art gallery, looking at artworks displayed on the wall; they are holding brochures or magazines, and a speaker or monitor is visible on the right side of the image.
Young man speaking into a microphone at an art gallery event, with artwork displayed on white panels behind him and others observing or preparing to speak.
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Discover the exhibition space online via Matterport

Events

Logo for Launch Creatives Institute with the words 'Launch' in italics on the left and 'Creatives Institute' on the right in bold, separated by a vertical line, on a light gray background.

Launch Event

7-9pm, 28th October 2025

Join us at the official launch of the Creatives Institute, featuring talks from artists, a variety of live music performances, and complimentary prosecco, all in the context of the incredible art at our Belonging exhibition in the atrium space of the Faculty of Arts Building.

Windrush Event

The Empire Windrush arrived in the UK in 1948, bringing with it an aspirational generation looking to build new lives in Britain. Through talks from Monica Brown and family, discover the story of her mother Iciline, who after after 15 years of living in the UK, was prevented from entering the UK where her four children were born. Her children fought and won the campaign to secure her right to live in the UK. Also joining the conversation is Qian Zephaniah, wife of the late, legendary poet Benjamin Zephaniah, who will share reflections on keeping his flame alive and his lasting influence on culture and community. Followed by a gospel choir performance, and accompanied by complimentary prosecco in the stunning atrium space of the Faculty of Arts Building.

7-9pm, 30th October 2025

A woman with black curly hair, glasses, wearing a white shirt with black stripes, standing in front of a wall covered with handwritten text.

Our Artists

A portrait of a Black man with long dreadlocks, smiling, wearing a dark jacket and a striped shirt, with a gold background featuring handwritten text.

An award-winning quilt artist, whose Windrush quilt series celebrates resilience, adaptation and identity, reflecting the lives and legacies of the Windrush Generation. Weaving together the struggles and triumphs of those who journeyed to the UK seeking new beginnings, each quilt tells a captivating story from each sitter.

Digital illustration of a woman with an afro hairstyle, standing outdoors with a cityscape in the background, holding a stick or baton.
A detailed line drawing of a woman sitting on a bench with two children, one standing and one sitting, all reading a book together.

Ispahani Mukah is a Cameroonian-born artist whose biro drawings transform an everyday pen into a tool of slowness, depth, and presence. His layered, rhythmic lines build drawings that vibrate with memory and connection. Working with a medium often overlooked, he reveals its expressive power, where mistakes become memory, repetition becomes breath, and the ordinary becomes sacred.

A highly pixelated image of two children, possibly a girl with long hair and another child, interacting indoors with soft lighting.
Pixelated, abstract digital art with vibrant colors, including blues, pinks, reds, and greens.

Building on a foundation of graphic design, Lemmon’s paintings exploit the possibilities and consequences of our increasing reliance on screens, imposing disruption by applying it to all manner of film footage found online, from films to TV, to news to influencer clips, in order to explore the shape-shifting qualities of the digital world, foregrounding its illusory qualities and their effect on our idea of truth and what lies beyond the screen.

A woman with long blonde hair holds a sheer white fabric, partially covering her face and the face of another woman with her eyes closed.
A woman in a white headscarf looking to the side against a plain background.

Neil Moore’s uncompromising figurative paintings, combining impeccable technique and thoughtful content, have been exhibited widely in Europe and the U.S.A. 

Almost uniquely among contemporary realist painters (but in a long tradition stretching back through Courbet to Caravaggio) he employs a classical realist technique to explore the ordinary mysteries of our lives.

Painting of several women with long hair, sitting and standing in a dark, pink and purple-toned abstract scene.
Four packs of cigarettes aligned vertically on a white wall.

Phoebe Birch

Phoebe Birch is currently an undergraduate studying Fine Art at The Ruskin, University of Oxford. Her artistic process is multi-disciplinary, often taking its form in painting, sculpture and photography.

She takes inspiration from the immediate world around her, which allows for her practice to feel raw through accounts of sex, drugs and domestic life. Phoebe's current work captures the turmoil and excitement of young adulthood through a queer lens.

For Phoebe, “art has always been a way for me to dissect myself, picking apart experiences and blowing them up on canvases to examine, which gives me a way to articulate the world around me.” 

Abstract painting of mountains and water in monochromatic tones of white, gray, and black.
A framed grayscale painting of a mountain and a lake, with reflections, in a white wall.

Two artists working at the edge of painting and architecture.
Their work explores memory, landscape, and abstraction through large-scale compositions that sit between representation and geometry. Based in Livery Studio, Leamington Spa, they produce original paintings rooted in clarity, craftsmanship, and quiet intensity.

Each piece begins in the field — tracing ridgelines, patterns, and atmospheres — before evolving through layered studio processes into terrains of absence and attention.

Painted mural of an abandoned, dilapidated building with graffiti and boarded-up windows, under a clear blue sky.
Painting of a red brick building with arched windows and a black metal staircase, possibly an old industrial or residential structure, with trees and a colorful sky in the background.

James Birkin (born 1991) is a painter based in Coventry, whose work explores the British urban landscape, particularly focusing on abandoned buildings.

Birkin’s paintings focus on overlooked and unappreciated sites that sit in states of disrepair and neglect, an all too familiar sight in redeveloping post-industrial cities in the UK.

 The buildings stand as monuments to a bygone era, existing in a state of limbo where their fate is still undecided, and each painting is a place that has reached the end of its days, awaiting an opportunity to rise again or fade away into history.