Singing Blankets was a collaborative art project with refugees and asylum seekers in the UK and Greece, centred on collective action, creative expression, and healing through sewing and sound.

The project took place across five refugee services: Hackney Migrant Centre, South London Refugee Association, Jesuit Refugee Service, Barnet and Southgate College in London, as well as The Melissa Network and The Home Project in Athens. Over several months, artists Therese Westin and Amanda Camenisch facilitated weekly 2.5-hour workshops in these centres.

Each workshop followed a trauma-informed approach, beginning with relaxation and guided meditations that engaged participants in sensory explorations of colour, shape, tone, and sound. Somatic movement practices, mirroring techniques, and voice work, including humming, toning, and improvisation, were paired with sonic exploration using self-built instruments such as a chair harp, table harp, kalimba, xylophone, flutes, gogos, rattles, drums, chimes, and bells.

These sensory and sonic practices were then translated into textile work. Participants experimented with connecting sounds to shapes and colours, which were stitched into individually crafted blankets. Each blanket also carried small V-shaped straps, enabling them to be tied together into a large circle or umbrella, an emblem of how individuals could be seen both as distinct and as part of a collective whole. These collective formations were used in performances, sometimes at festivals and sometimes in smaller gatherings within the centres.

Parallel to the textile work, soundscapes were created in each group. Participants recorded and layered sounds, producing collective compositions that embodied the atmosphere and memories of the sessions. These were later embedded into the blankets via fabric-printed QR codes, linking each visual work back to its sonic counterpart. In this way, the blankets became both personal artworks and portals to the collective soundscore, offering participants a means of reconnecting to the shared energy whenever needed.

Through the interplay of sound, colour, shape, and rhythm, Singing Blankets developed a unique shared language. The project illuminated how collective creativity can empower, restore, and transform, while simultaneously honouring the individuality of each participant.

Funded by Arts Council England and the Community Engagement 2021 Artist Grant Award, Singing Blankets embodied the potential of art as a practice of healing, solidarity, and connection.

Listen to the soundscores of Singing Blankets here

Visit the Singing Blankets website here