Co-created with women with lived experience of seeking sanctuary, We Hold What We Carry explores resilience, identity, trauma and belonging.

The exhibition uses storytelling, video, found objects and installation to surface memories that express the fragility and tension of living between places. It offers a space for care, dialogue, and collective reflection, asking how we hold what we carry, and how art and community can help us reimagine belonging across borders and differences.

Developed by the Mental Health Foundation’s Elevate project and the Hope Campaign, which aim to ensure that people seeking sanctuary have a voice in decision-making, it is presented as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival in response to the theme Comfort & Disturb.

Lead artist and curator Paria M. Goodarzi and Maryam Razeghian coordinated the project in close collaboration with participants to develop its themes and outcomes.