Takoua Ben Mohammed, a comic-strip artist who now lives in Rome, says:

"I always drew, even as a child, copying strip cartoons. That's how I learned to draw. Then when I was 14, my father encouraged me to write stories about the issues that I faced as an active member of a humanitarian youth organisation, and I began to use the artform as an instrument to promote integration and intercultural dialogue. Since then I have focused on humanitarian topics and issues of racism and prejudice, because these are subjects that affect me personally."

Takoua is one of the artists contributing to Journeys, a project across eight countries sharing refugee experiences through great art and culture. 

Rome was also the location for an African-born Belgian-Italian to work with a group of young migrant children to create an outdoor exhibition 'Children of the sea', and for a dance troupe to engage adolescent asylum-seekers in a performance – 'Play on the beach' -  reflecting issues of exclusion and encounter.

Riccardo Vannuccini, the director of 'Play on the beach', says: "For us the theme of refugees concerns all mankind from a theatrical point of view – those who flee, but also us too, in terms of who can receive them, and how."

We're human

In mid-May, as part of Journeys, unusual posters drawing attention to the refugee crisis appeared on the 4-6 tram-route in Budapest. They included self-portraits of a UK group of asylum-seekers and refugees and striking figures from Nicos Papadopolous in his Plasticobilism series.

I'm happy here

In Palermo, migrants took part in creating a film about their life there – where many of them choose to stay, because they feel welcome in the city's rich mix of cultures.

At the Altonale Festival in Hamburg in June, an outdoor art exhibition of Escape and Hope, with input from the local refugee and asylum seeker community, focused on the fears and hopes of refugees.  And a choreographed dance performance inspired by parkour and free-running was performed across Hamburg by young refugees, using movement, dance and music influences from their countries, but translated into something shared.

Exploring identity

Displacement and identity are at the heart of #JeSuis (In Progress), in which young Turkish dancers in the Aakash Odedra Company explore what makes home when millions are on the move. This played across the UK cities taking part in Journeys in 2017.

The UK contributions to Journeys also include photography exhibitions on migration into Europe, a shipping container offering virtual reality tours of the Mosul Cultural Museum.