UoG supports Moomins’ celebration event held as part of Refugee Week
University of Gloucestershire has been lending its support to the City Council and Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (GARAS), by providing artwork to support the ‘Moomin Picnic’ held as part of Refugee Week.
Dr Katie Forrester, senior lecturer in illustration at the University, collaborated with GARAS to create booklets and backdrops for the community event held in Gloucester’s Kings Square.
Also known as zines, the booklets were created by GARAS clients, who have fled persecution, conflict, famine or hardship in their home country. The zines were then printed in the illustration studio at Francis Close Hall and published by Pittville Press, a self-publishing imprint, run by the illustration department at UoG. They were handed out to picnickers to help showcase the incredible work of GARAS.
Dr Katie Forrester said: “When working on the zine project, it was really exciting to see the beautiful illustrations of shared tea and coffee making and drinking traditions across cultures, and we bought something together which shows the importance of sharing a meal, which was ideal for the picnic theme!”
Inspired by the front cover of ‘The Moomins and the Great Flood’, Dr Forrester and staff and volunteers from GARAS also painted a 12m by 2m length of fabric to create a floral backdrop for the stage. This created an apt focal point for the day’s events, which took place in front of UoG’s new City Campus.
Dr Forrester commented: “Painting the backdrops was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed working with GARAS staff and volunteers to create the amazing landscape full of abundant flora and fauna inspired by Tove Jansson’s Moomin Valley.”
Organised by the City Council, the picnic was part of a nationwide celebration of the partnership between Moomin Characters, Counterpoints Arts and Refugee Week. It celebrated the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees, as well as the 80th anniversary of the first Moomin story ‘The Moomins and the Great Flood’.
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