Exploring belonging within a community cafe

The Place

The Hub is a café, food bank and community space where people gather, volunteer and support one another. It is a place where everyday acts of care, generosity and creativity quietly shape the life of the community.

Beginning with Attention

I arrived without a predetermined outcome. Spending time in the Hub, I began simply by paying attention.
Gradually I became aware of small acts of belonging happening every day. Conversations, shared meals, volunteering and making all seemed to contribute to a place where people felt able to be themselves.
Rather than searching for a particular story, I allowed the relationships, rhythms and atmosphere of the space to guide the enquiry.

Making

Making is how I explore my relationship with a place.
I immersed myself in the rhythms of the Hub, using photography, conversation, drawing, collage and writing to process my experience. As relationships developed, the people, conversations and creativity I encountered naturally became woven into the work.
Rather than illustrating ideas I already held, the making itself became a way of understanding the place more deeply.
I became interested in how different communities overlapped (church members, volunteers, café users and visitors), and how safe spaces can create the freedom for deeper conversations, creativity and self-expression.

What Emerged

Belonging wasn’t something I brought to the Hub as a theme. It emerged through paying attention.
The work revealed the creativity, generosity and relationships already present within the community, creating opportunities to recognise and celebrate what was already there.
It also highlighted how places of welcome can encourage confidence, creativity and self-expression, simply by allowing people to feel seen, valued and able to contribute.

Moments of Capture

Throughout the residency, different moments of the enquiry found their own form.
Printed zine • Photography • Participatory artworks • Creative conversations • Collaborative making • Lyrics • Card constructions

Hubsville Zine

Rather than documenting the residency, this zine became another way of thinking with the place. It brings together photographs, drawings, lyrics, conversations and fragments gathered throughout my time at the Hub.

It isn’t intended as a report of what happened, but as an invitation to experience some of the questions, relationships and discoveries that emerged along the way.

What this place taught me

With each residency, I hope to learn something about what it means to be human.

This residency reminded me that belonging is rarely created through programmes or initiatives alone. More often, it grows through ordinary acts of welcome, shared purpose and the opportunity to contribute. The Hub showed me that creativity can become a form of hospitality, helping people feel seen, valued and able to participate in the life of a place.

I leave with a deeper curiosity about how places create the conditions in which people can become more fully themselves. That question now becomes part of the ongoing enquiry.

The Conversation Continues

Although this residency had a defined timeframe, my relationship with the Hub continues.

The conversations, artwork and experiences remain part of an ongoing exploration of belonging. They continue to shape future work, just as future work may continue to reshape my understanding of this place.

I hope the zine, now living within the Hub itself, continues to spark conversations and moments of recognition long after the residency has ended.