Recipes of Resilience

Funded by Arts Council England, National Lottery Project Grant, Ongoing

Recipes of Resilience is our most recent Arts Council funded project and represents an ambitious continuation of our commitment to community empowerment through inclusive and meaningful creative practice. The project draws inspiration from Judy Chicago’s iconic artwork The Dinner Party, which celebrated women’s voices through a collective table of stories, symbols, and identities. In a similar spirit, Recipes of Resilience brings together communities across the West Midlands to co-create a shared artwork that honours lived experience, cultural identity, and the everyday resilience of individuals and groups.

Throughout this ongoing project, we are working closely with nearly ten community organisations to deliver a series of creative workshops centred on art, poetry, storytelling, heritage, food culture, and community memory. Each participant contributes their own creative response, which becomes part of a growing collective artwork symbolising unity, diversity, and shared human experience. The workshops are intentionally designed to remove barriers to participation, ensuring that people from all cultural, linguistic, and social backgrounds can engage, express themselves freely, and feel represented.

As the project has evolved, Recipes of Resilience has also expanded into higher education through a new academic partnership with the University of Wolverhampton Illustration Department. From 2026, the project has been formally embedded into a university module, with illustration students creating original artworks in response to Recipes of Resilience as part of their assessed coursework. This collaboration offers students a real-world, socially engaged creative brief, while allowing the project to benefit from fresh perspectives, research-led practice, and emerging artistic voices. Selected student illustrations will be included in the project’s final public exhibition and featured within the accompanying publication.

By the end of the project, a major public exhibition will present the full collaborative body of work, bringing together contributions from community participants and university students alike. The exhibition will stand as a powerful testament to collective storytelling, intergenerational learning, and the role of art in building connection and understanding across communities.

As part of the long-term legacy of Recipes of Resilience, we will also publish a comprehensive book documenting the full journey of the project. This publication will include the methodologies and guidelines used to design and deliver the workshops, reflections and stories from partner community organisations, artworks created by participants and students, and a curated collection of poems and creative writing produced throughout the sessions. The book will function both as an educational resource for artists, educators, and community practitioners, and as an archive preserving the voices and experiences that shaped the project.

Recipes of Resilience continues to grow as a living, evolving celebration of culture, creativity, and community collaboration. It stands as one of Humanity Media CIC’s most significant undertakings, demonstrating our long-term commitment to inclusive artistic engagement, meaningful partnerships, and the transformative power of shared storytelling.

People sitting around tables with notebooks and coffee cups inside a brick-walled room with colorful stained glass windows and a green door.
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A group of diverse women engaged in a discussion or workshop in a room with brick walls, large windows with colorful floral and sunset murals, and a green door in the background.
Group of women and a man sitting at a table in a bright room with large windows, engaged in a discussion or workshop. The woman in the center is smiling, with notebooks and papers on the table.
A woman with purple hair and glasses speaking to a group of women in a discussion or presentation, seated at a table with notebooks, pens, and water bottles, in an indoor setting with brick walls and a green door.
A woman with long wavy hair, glasses, and a black jacket smiling and talking with two other women in an indoor setting with large windows and natural light.
Three women sitting at a table during a meeting or workshop, with water bottles and notebooks in front of them, against a brick wall background.
A man in a blue jacket and a black knit cap looks down, standing in front of a brick wall and a beige sofa with pillows.
Three women sitting at a table during a discussion or meeting indoors, with a brick wall in the background. The woman closest to the camera has glasses, dark hair in a bun, and is wearing a cream-colored jacket. The middle woman has dark hair and is
Group of women and one man participating in a meeting or workshop in a spacious, indoor venue with brick walls and large, colorful stained-glass windows. They are seated around tables with papers, notebooks, and a water bottle.
Display of various baked pastries including donuts, croissants, muffins, and cookies on a wire rack in a bakery.
A person stands at a food stall with a prominent illuminated letter "M" on a white brick wall behind it, offering pastries and beverages, with supplies and boxes underneath.
Group of people sitting around a table working on documents and notebooks with coffee cups, in a cozy cafe or meeting space with wooden floors and a sofa in the background.
A group of diverse women sitting at tables in a room with brick walls and stained glass windows, engaged in writing or reading. A woman with dark hair stands in the foreground, smiling at the camera.
Group of people sitting around tables in a room with large windows and brick walls, engaged in writing and discussing.
A group of women seated around a table inside a brick-walled building with a glass ceiling, engaged in work or discussion, with one woman standing and observing.
A young woman with long brown hair sticking out her tongue, holding a notebook, sitting at a table with a group of people in a bright indoor setting with large windows, brick wall, and plants.
People sitting at tables in a workshop or meeting space with brick walls and large windows, some reading or writing, and a woman standing.
A woman with long brown hair wearing a checkered coat, sitting at a table, holding a pen, and listening attentively at an indoor event with a brick wall background.
Four people sitting around a table in a room with large windows, having a discussion. On the table are notebooks, papers, a coffee cup, and a carton of eggs. One woman is speaking, and the others are listening attentively.
A group of people sitting around a table in an indoor setting, with a brick wall and green door in the background. A woman standing appears to be addressing or speaking to the group.
A woman with glasses and dark lipstick at a table, wearing a light-colored sweater vest and a white coat with a fur collar, at a social or community event, with other people in the background.
Two people, a woman and a man, are looking at something on a table and smiling, indoors.
Group of people sitting around a table filled with colorful pens, notebooks, and stationery, engaged in an arts and craft activity, with a sticker of the Arts Council England logo in the top right corner.
Four women sitting at a table outdoors, engaging in activities with paper crafts, notebooks, and phones, with a brick wall in the background. One woman is holding a yellow paper origami, another is writing, and the others are looking at their phones.