ARTS PARTNERSHIPS
“ I believe the arts can bring healing and restoration, they can create a space of hospitality to attend to and bear witness to the unspeakable suffering of another. There is nothing more valuable that we can give to another than the full recognition of his or her humanity.”
ARTIST PROFILE: Hannah Rose Thomas
June 10, 2021
WFI Virtual Event
The Vanguard
Hannah Rose Thomas is an English artist and Durham graduate in Arabic and History, with an MA from the Prince's School of Traditional Art in London. Hannah is currently studying her PhD at Glasgow University as a UNESCO and MIDEQ Scholar.
While living in Jordan as an Arabic student in 2014, Ms. Thomas organised art projects with Syrian refugees for UNHCR. This experience led her to seek ways to combine her art and humanitarian work. Hannah subsequently began painting portraits of refugees she had met, to show the people behind the global crisis. She seeks to use art as a tool for advocacy, bringing their stories into places of influence in the Global North.
Ms. Thomas’ portraits have been shown at the UK Houses of Parliament, European Parliament, Scottish Parliament, Lambeth Palace, The Saatchi Gallery and Westminster Abbey. Three of Hannah’s paintings of Yezidi women were chosen by HRH The Prince of Wales for his exhibition Prince & Patron in Buckingham Palace in 2018.
Ms. Thomas has been shortlisted for the Women of the Future Award 2020 and nominated for the UN Women UK Awards 2020 and the World Humanitarian Forum Youth Changemaker Award 2020. She was selected for the Forbes 30 Under 30 2019 and The Female Lead 20 in their 20s in recognition of her work. Learn more about Hannah>
All images © 2021 Hannah Rose Thomas