On Thursday 25 June, ACAVA Maxilla Walk Studios hosted an evening exhibition in celebration of Refugee Week 2026, in collaboration with the Babylon Migrants Project.

The exhibition showcased artwork created by young people from Babylon’s creative programmes across London – work that explored home, displacement, identity, belonging and hope with honesty and care.

Each piece offered a glimpse into a personal journey, inviting visitors to pause, reflect and listen. Conversations sparked by the work continued long after people had stepped away from it.

The exhibition opened with a small print reading “We Have Courage”, this year’s Refugee Week theme, and concluded with “Everyone Deserves Peace”, surrounded by Polaroids of everyone who joined us that evening. It was a reminder that the exhibition was as much about the people who gathered around the work as the work itself.

The evening also brought together communities from across the Maxilla Walk Studios network, including members of ACAVA’s Maxilla Men’s Shed, Make and Reuse and Cultivate Create programmes, alongside ACAVA artists – many with migration stories of their own – who joined with partners and friends, connecting naturally with the young artists from Babylon in ways that were unplanned and all the more meaningful for it.

Thank you to everyone from the Babylon Migrants Project, to the young artists who trusted us with their work and stories, and to everyone who came along to mark Refugee Week with us.