Mansfield District Council is planning a major six-month project in 2025 to celebrate the cultural richness of the district’s global connections.

All Together Now! will be an ambitious and pioneering community-focused programme.

After its launch in January, it will build up to synchronise with National Refugee Week in June, and with Mansfield’s existing celebrations for Carnival and Windrush Day.

The project will include an exhibition at the museum, public performances, educational outreach, and chances to bring communities together.

Sian Booth, the council’s cultural services manager, said: “We want Mansfield to embrace and celebrate the cultural richness of its town and to find common ground in its shared desire to be a safe and welcoming home for everyone.

“All Together Now! invites local people and sanctuary seekers to see themselves as part of a bigger creative and cultural picture in which everyone is valued, and we hope it will lead to courageous conversations.”

The project, which is in the development stage, is being produced for the council by Dr Anna Ball, a freelance creative who has extensive experience of migration arts and community wellbeing projects.

She is a driving force behind HEAL Collective, which delivers powerful arts projects working with those navigating the asylum system in the UK.

Under the council’s strategy framework, Mansfield: Towards 2030, it is a key priority to give communities a voice and to value the diversity of communities. The project also aligns with the council’s objectives as an Arts Council England funded National Portfolio Organisation.

The planned museum exhibition, which will be led by artist-in-residence Ismail Khokon (pictured) and launched during Refugee Week, will ask: Is there more to Mansfield’s history than meets the eye? Whose history do we see when we look into the past? And who gets to make history, anyway?

It will aim to encourage local people to respond creatively to artefacts from the museum’s archives, offering their own written, spoken, visual or material responses. Workshops will help participants to produce photo montages for the display.

As part of Mansfield Carnival’s celebration of Refugee Week, visitors will be able enjoy an outdoor community culinary experience, offering an array of dishes from around the world.

The Community Table will invite people to come together, share meals, and connect with others in the spirit of unity and cultural appreciation.

The project is expected to feature a series of public performances, including drama, an immersive art installation, music, and a comedy show with comedians from refugee and migrant backgrounds.

Coun Stuart Richardson, portfolio holder for Regeneration and Growth, said: “We want Mansfield to celebrate everyone’s right and psychological need for a safe, welcoming home. It’s fundamental and something that can unite us and make us more resilient as a community.

“This project is not just for people from ethnic minority or migrant backgrounds. It is about how we all meld and play a part in creating the community of Mansfield.”