Exhibition / Under the Same Sky 19. – .21.05.2025
Exhibition Launch: Wednesday 18 June, 7–9PM
Centrala is proud to present Under the Same Sky, a new group exhibition opening as part of Refugee Week 2025. Featuring seven migrant artists from our network of partners and the Centrala CEE Us! Network, this intimate and timely show offers a powerful reflection on what it means to build and sustain community across borders, identities, and lived experience.
This exhibition is part of a wider project funded by the Community Rescue Fund from Birmingham City Council, developed in response to the racist riots that occurred in the summer of 2024. During that time, many migrant and refugee communities experienced heightened fear, tension, and isolation. In the wake of those events, Under the Same Sky seeks to create a space for healing, solidarity and connection. Through art, storytelling, and shared cultural expression, we aim to strengthen community cohesion between migrant and non-migrant groups, fostering dialogue, understanding, and care.
Under the Same Sky is rooted in the belief that community does not simply exist; it is built, protected and shaped through ongoing acts of creativity, courage and togetherness. This spirit is carried by each of the exhibiting artists, whose works respond to the Refugee Week 2025 theme: Community as a Superpower. Presented through photography, analogue film, painting, archival material and experimental technique, the exhibition explores how connection and resilience emerge even in unfamiliar and difficult terrain.
Featuring work from Artur Zerkalov, Martin Avotiņš, Sylwia Ciszewska-Peciak, Femi Amogunla, Violetta Brandys, Helena Sõõro, and Lucy Sadova. Across all the works, viewers are invited to consider four curatorial themes: vulnerability and resilience, unfamiliar territories, solidarity and togetherness, and life in a foreign land. These thematic threads run through the exhibition like constellations in a shared sky, distinct yet connected. The exhibition has been produced collaboratively, with artists and team members shaping the concept, title, and approach together to ensure the process remains community-centred.
As part of the wider project, Under the Same Sky will be accompanied by a public programme of events designed to promote dialogue and anti-racism through culture. These gatherings will include music, food, and storytelling, culminating in a community anti-racism concert where local artists and leaders will come together to promote unity. An information campaign will also run alongside the project, using social media and sector-wide newsletters to promote anti-racist practices and engage affected communities across Birmingham.
Centrala has long been recognised as a safe space for migrant and marginalised communities in the city, and through this project, we aim to deepen that role, working closely with our partners to reach those most impacted by last year’s public disorder, and ensuring they are welcomed into a space of expression, understanding, and care.
Under the Same Sky is not just an exhibition, it is an invitation to reflect, connect and imagine a future rooted in empathy, justice and shared humanity.
This showcase of art and culture is funded by Birmingham City Council, under the Community Recovery Fund.
See what else we are doing as part of Refugee Week here.