Stitching Together – An Exhibition

Stitching Together – An Exhibition is created by Bridges for Communities and Arnolfini to celebrate and share our unique partnership that has developed over the last three years, drawing out the special moments and projects that have helped the partnership to grow.

In Gallery 5, there will be a particular focus on the beautiful textile creations and stories of women from across Bristol, including the work of Arnolfini’s regular Friday Women’s Craft Club and Bridges for Communities’ Stitching Together groups.

In partnership with Bristol Refugee Festival and Bridges for Communities, Arnolfini’s Craft Club, is a weekly ‘craft and conversation’ group where women from all backgrounds are welcome to come along, have a cup of tea, share skills and get crafty.

The Stitching Together group provides a welcoming space for refugee and asylum-seeking women in Bristol to be creative and make beautiful and useful textile based art, clothes, and homewares, while gaining confidence and making friends.

Bridges for Communities is a Bristol-based charity which seeks to create communities that are kinder, fairer and more welcoming and which helps people of different cultures, races and faiths live well together.

This free exhibition is held across Arnolfini’s second floor.

Our Partnership Story

Since 2020, Arnolfini and Bridges for Communities (Bridges) have enjoyed a growing partnership and collaboration. Bridges is a Bristol-based charity that exists to create kinder, fairer and more welcoming communities where people of different cultures, races and faiths live well together.

Fuelled by a shared desire for Bristol to be a welcoming and inclusive city, we have explored a whole range of ways in which arts and culture can bring people from different walks of life together, can enable them to work for positive change and can lead to the creation, together, of something beautiful. 

From small and exploratory beginnings with the photography exhibition The Path Leads to Bristol, to regular collaborations bringing children together from diverse schools across the city, and sewing classes for refugee women creating unique Afghan cushion designs. It has been a journey of shared learning and discovery.

Stitching Together is the story of our partnership, celebrating the work that Bridges do and how you can get involved.