Bring Solidarity Home!
Last autumn I toured the UK promoting sculpture workshops and Solidarity Park.
On the back of this tour, I’ve developed four new distinct projects, all connected to Solidarity Park, collectively titled “Bring Solidarity Home.” In this newsletter, I want to share my broader vision and offer a glimpse of how I hope these projects, along with others, will unfold in the coming months.
Why “Bring Solidarity Home”?
The rise of far-right ideologies in recent years has been impossible to ignore. As part of combating this and providing alternative visions in my opinion it is vital to build community arts projects especially directed at the young around Solidarity Park’s core principles: Education, Art, and History. These projects aim to raise the bar for my work and that of my collaborators, fostering a united effort against the far right. Check on this article where I explore the power of Sculpture.
It’s important to clarify that “Bring Solidarity Home” is not about me returning to the UK (my home) after some years in Spain with a solidarity message. Instead, it is about empowering people to create art that they bring into their own communities and homes—art that carries the weight of social, anti-fascist history. The concept draws on the legacy of the International Brigades who fought in the Spanish Civil War. Why they left a decaying UK in crises ridden world. It’s about honoring their sacrifices and keeping alive their dream of an anti-fascist world.
This theme is particularly poignant because many brigadiers never returned home. The ongoing process of uncovering Spanish Civil War graves remains a contemporary battle, one that far-right forces in Spain often try to obstruct or halt. The far right today across the world use social misinformation as a matter of course. The truth of history is hard to find at the best of times but find it we must and this happens best when communities come together with unity, solidarity and internationalism in their hearts.
Expanding the Solidarity Park Festival
Another key aspect of “Bring Solidarity Home” is increasing the internationalism of the Solidarity Park Festival. Based in Malgrat de Mar, the festival continues to grow, alongside essential educational initiatives in local secondary schools. See here info about Solidarity Park
Currently, the festival is in its third year of in-person events, following six years of online activities. The plan is to grow the festival year by year, culminating in 2027 with a much larger international event to mark the 90th anniversary of the sinking of the Ciudad de Barcelona. Over the next two and a half years, the “Bring Solidarity Home” projects will establish sister initiatives in other countries, uniting anti-fascist artists, activists, and organizations in a collective effort to honour the legacy of the International Brigades.
Project Highlights
Each “Bring Solidarity Home” project is unique, and I hope they will develop their own voices as they grow. Here’s a brief outline:
Surrey Solidarity
Promoted by Surrey Unison, this project builds on a long-standing collaboration with Solidarity Park. Last year, workshops in Surrey created a memorial for those who died in the struggle, particularly International Brigadier and artist Felicia Browne. This spring, the work will continue, with plans to inaugurate the memorial on Workers’ Memorial Day (28th April) in the gardens of Surrey County Council offices in Reigate.
Wales Solidarity
This project has begun with the collaboration of artists who have made Important pilgrimages to Spain and the Solidarity Park Festival. Tad Davies, Glyn Owen and Wendy Lewis. The goal is to hold a summer event featuring a film premiere and a separate photographic exhibition created by these young artists retracing the steps of the International Brigades. The project will also engage Welsh youth in understanding the fight against fascism, past and present. I’ll be leading sculpture workshops to create 184 mini Brigadista figurines that participants can take home as personal memorials and that will also form a larger piece of community participation Art. See article on Mini Brigadistas here
Hull Solidarity
This project continues the relationship between Solidarity Park, Hull Trades Council, and Hull Art School. Last autumn, 250 students participated, and we aim to exhibit their work in both Hull and Catalonia this year. A central goal is to fund a trip for 10 Hull students to attend the Solidarity Park Festival, representing the 10 brigadiers known to have come from Hull. More broadly, I plan to establish a fund to bring international students to Catalonia. This will not be easy!
Solidarity Sunderland
The newest project, Solidarity Sunderland, has enormous potential. Despite its significant historical ties, Sunderland has no monument to the International Brigades, including two individuals who were aboard the Ciudad de Barcelona the ship that sunk in the Spanish civil war and was the stimulus for Solidarity Park. A launch meeting will take place this March in collaboration with the North East Volunteers for Liberty group. I am excited and anticipate spending significant time in this important working-class city in the coming years.
How You Can Support
All these projects—and I—need financial support to thrive. If you’d like to contribute to a specific project or support me personally, please reach out via email.
More importantly, if any of these projects resonate with you, or if you’d like to start something similar in your area, let’s start a conversation. Together, we can build a stronger, united movement, because lets be honest…. We have to!
All different but all the same, how Mini-Brigadistas can help ‘bring solidarity home’. – Outa-Space
Outa-Space 