Developing Your Creative Practice Grant

In 2021 I was awarded the "Developing Your Creative Practice" grant from the Arts Council England which supported me to expand my socially engaged practice with the Muslim community at heart. The award allowed me to continue my long-term research and practice on the experience of Bulgarian Muslim communities with forced name-changes and State discrimination, as well as create new work sharing stories and experiences of Muslim people with international audiences.

Some of the activities included field work and research, photographing and interviewing people from the Muslim communities in Bulgaria, preserving their lived experience of the past. A selection of the resulting work was showcased in a solo exhibition in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Photo Fringe 2022 in the UK and at Bursa Photo Festival 2023 in Bursa, Turkey. Throughout the project I also presented the work during multiple artist talks. The work was also awarded the Danny Wilson Memorial Award 2022.

Another part of the work was engaging the local community in England. During my art residency at Aspex Portsmouth gallery from January until March 2023, I engaged with the local Portsmouth community and led Names and Clay workshops where people carved their name in clay and used floral elements to decorate them. Participants were encouraged to share the meaning of their name and engage in a discussion about the importance of names to their identity and sense of belonging. The resulting work and audio recordings of participant names were exhibited at Aspex gallery at the end of the residency.