Making for
Midsummer
Artist: Svitlana Semashko
With: Frome Welcome Hub
(supporting displaced families)
For three months in early summer 2025, the Terrestrial office was taken over by mountains of fabric. Every Wednesday after school, families who have moved to Frome from outside the UK worked together to create their own wild costumes. Supported by Ukrainian textile artist Svitlana Semashko, adults and young people designed and made clothes, headgear, props and accessories. Some people learned to use sewing machines for the first time, others created ambitious knitted items and wild cardboard creations.
The group shared and researched different traditions from around the world to mark Midsummer - the longest day of the year. They worked to get their costumes ready for Midsummer Mischief: our own colourful, multi-cultural celebration in Victoria Park on Midsummer’s Day.
At the celebration, members of the public were welcomed by our group. They could try their hand at mask-making, Ukrainian folk dancing, natural garland making and more. And we finished with a parade around the park.
‘It's like someone gave you all the tools for your dream, for your creativity, for your ideas. It was amazing experience. And I would say that this really helped to connect me and my daughter... I was learning: listen to her… We were proud. I remember that after we finished this project, were walking and talking: oh, we did this. It was so hard, but we did it together.’
- Lana, Making for Midsummer collaborator.
