Great response in opening weeks of new exhibition that brings student voices from Gaza to Hailsham

We Are Still Here: An Exhibition and Anthology of Resilience, Grief and Unshattered Hope from Gaza’s University Students opened on Saturday 14th February and runs until Saturday 21st March. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

The exhibition is based on We Are Still Here, a recently published anthology featuring writing by students from Gaza’s universities. Through poems, short stories, essays and personal testimonies, the students document their experiences of displacement, loss and survival, writing amid ongoing violence, starvation and blockade.

Alongside selected poems and visual material from the anthology, the exhibition features new work by Sussex artists who have created pieces in response to the students’ writing. These include paintings, music, textiles and mixed material works, offering creative interpretations of themes such as hope, grief, memory and resistance. There is also an art installation from ArtBloc - a Brighton based mobile art exhibition of Art for Palestine featuring well known Palestinian artists.

The exhibition aims to create a space for reflection and solidarity, bringing together international student voices and the local creative community, and invites visitors to engage with the realities of student life in Gaza through art and storytelling.

The exhibition is hosted by Gallery North, a not-for-profit gallery and arts centre located on Hailsham High Street, founded over twenty years ago. The gallery supports local schools, charities and creative groups, runs classes and workshops, and organises the annual Hailsham Arts Festival.

Emma Donovan, Exhibitions Manager and Curator for Gallery North says: “As a community centred art gallery and not-for-profit organisation based in Hailsham for more than two decades, our aim has always been to provide an open, creative space - available to all - that celebrates artistic expression in all its forms and comments on the world around us. We are pleased to be able to host this important body of work and to share the stories of these students. The poetry is displayed alongside artwork from artists known to us who were invited to create work in response to the poetry in the anthology.”

All proceeds connected to the project support students in Gaza, Palestine.