On 17 August, Diversity in Art opened at Stamford Arts Centre in the small Lincolnshire town of Stamford. The exhibition brings together painting, photography, sculpture, poetry and decorative art by artists with a wide range of cultural backgrounds and life experiences. Participants include artists from Stamford and the surrounding area, as well as those now living in different countries across Europe.
Stamford Diversity Group CIC organised the exhibition, a local organisation working to create an inclusive and welcoming environment in Stamford.
“Stamford Diversity Group is basically a group that just believes in celebrating the diversity of our lovely town. And when I say diversity, I’m not talking about country of origin, ethnicity, religion. I’m talking about every kind of diversity. If you come from Liverpool and Stamford is your home, you’re part of the diversity of Stamford as much as I, who chose to come here from India. We all become part of the place,” Shalini Austin, Secretary of Stamford Diversity Group CIC and curator of the exhibition.
This idea became the foundation of the exhibition: to represent not simply people from different backgrounds, but a diversity of experiences and ways of speaking about the world through art.
“Diversity is what makes us all click, really, and it’s a very beautiful word. The exhibition brings together artists from different parts of the world, different countries and religions. But it’s more than that. Art itself is so diverse — every artist has a different style. I tried to bring all that diversity together,” says Shalini.
A Ukrainian perspective on home after a journey of displacement
One part of the exhibition is project Kryla (Wings Born on the Journey), a common idea of bilingual magazine Maiak and LULEDIELLI Art Atelier featuring paintings created in the style of Petrykivka decorative painting. The project brings together works by Anna Congedo and Liudmyla Makei.
The project explores displacement, memory, cultural identity and belonging — and how a person can build a connection with a new place without losing their connection to where they came from.
For the exhibition in Stamford, project curator Anna Congedo selected works that reflect different aspects of this experience. The works are being shown in Stamford for the first time.
“The Kryla project grew out of the experiences of Ukrainian artists who were forced to leave their homes and continue their lives in different parts of Europe. But it was important to me not to speak about this journey solely in terms of loss. At the same time, it is a transformation: a search for a new place, a community and a way of speaking about yourself without losing your connection to the culture you carry with you. In Stamford, we wanted to show different sides of this experience: memory, adaptation, cultural heritage, new relationships and encounters. Together, these works ask a very simple but important question: what do we carry with us, what changes along the way, and what new things can emerge as a result of this journey?” says Anna.
The Ukrainian project naturally extends the exhibition’s central theme of diversity. While Stamford Diversity Group speaks about people who gradually become part of a new place, Kryla looks at this process from another perspective — through the experience of someone who leaves a familiar world behind and learns how to belong in a new environment.
The Ukrainian presence at the exhibition is not limited to this project.
“We also have work by Oleksii Klitovchenko, a photographer from Ukraine who has lived in Stamford for quite a while. There’s a whole wall of his work, which is very, very beautiful. They’re photographs of Stamford and the surrounding area,” says Shalini Austin.
The exhibition also features work by Ukrainian artist Olena, founder of the Blossia project. She works with real flowers, carefully drying and preserving them in transparent resin to create unique decorative pieces. For the artist, it is a way of literally “freezing a moment in time” and preserving the delicate form of natural materials. Each piece is one of a kind because, as the artist herself notes, nature never repeats itself.
Ukrainian artist Valeriia Kostenko moved to the UK in 2022 because of the full-scale war. Her work combines decorative pop surrealism and Art Nouveau, using watercolour alongside intricate fine-line drawing. Following her displacement, art became a sanctuary for her — a way of creating a sense of inner safety and making sense of a new life.
Maryna Stognieva was born in the Luhansk region and now lives in the UK. She works with oils, acrylics, watercolours and other materials and has created more than 350 paintings. During the full-scale war, Marina also taught painting to children and adults and ran charity art classes for children whose parents were defending Ukraine.
Neurodiversity
“When I talk about diversity, I also mean neurodiversity,” Shalini emphasises.
One of the installations in the exhibition was created with people living with dementia and a local organisation that supports them. It brings together images and associations through which participants express their own experiences and perceptions of dementia.
“It’s all about their thoughts, what they think about dementia. So I’ve got things like Arsenal, Liverpool FC, and I’ve also got emptiness, because all of that is dementia. It affects different people in different ways. And I’m very passionate about giving them representation, because they’re not just old people who’ve forgotten things,” explains the co-organiser.
From Sicily and India to Latvia
The same sense of multiple perspectives can be seen in the work of the exhibition’s other participants.
British-Sicilian artist Giuseppina Gloria Santoro works at the intersection of multiculturalism, heritage, traditional rituals and contemporary art. Drawing on symbols from Sicilian folklore and immigrant folk art, she explores migration, displacement and the search for home.
Artist and printmaker Dehlia Barnard-Edmunds, known as The Merryweather Artist, was born in the UK into a family with German and Indian heritage. Part of her connection with India comes through family stories, memories and recipes. Her practice includes prints and collages inspired by landscapes, gardens and natural forms.
Latvian artist Mefisto Bedre (Mihails Kokarevics), who now lives in Stamford, works across painting, photography, drawing and performance. His work explores themes including identity, self-representation, nature and memory.
Alongside them are works by poet and visual artist Levi Mills, artists Brian Haines, Tony Nero and Josette Carroll, feltmaker Eve Marshall, glass artist Lisa Johnson and other contributors.
The materials and techniques are as varied as the stories of the artists themselves: painting, photography, printmaking, collage, poetry, sculpture, wool, glass, resin, copper and natural materials.
Many of the works on display are available to purchase. The artists will donate a portion of the proceeds to Stamford Diversity Group CIC, which plans to use the funds for future arts and community projects and, in particular, hopes to hold another Stamford Diversity Festival.
Diversity in Art is on display at Stamford Arts Centre Gallery, 27 St Mary’s Street, Stamford, from 18 to 29 August 2026.
Photo credit: Tony Nero
