Artists from This New Ground and kaethe:k came together in Cologne for the first Shared Lines residency, exploring how creativity, images and shared experiences can build connection beyond spoken language.

In June 2026, artists from This New Ground travelled to Cologne for the first residency of Shared Lines, a new international collaboration with kaethe:k Kunsthaus.

Supported by Cultural Bridge Network, Shared Lines brings together artists with a learning disability from Portsmouth, London and Cologne to explore what happens when spoken language is no longer at the centre of collaboration. Instead, the project focuses on visual making, non-verbal communication and shared creative processes that allow different ways of thinking and being to exist side by side.

Over the course of a week, artists from This New Ground and kaethe:k spent time making, exploring, learning and working together. Arriving from different countries, we quickly found a shared understanding that creativity can connect people in ways words alone often cannot.

A Warm Welcome

After an early start from Portsmouth and Brighton, we arrived in Cologne excited to meet the artists and team at kaethe:k.

From the moment we stepped into the studios, we were welcomed with generosity and warmth. That first evening, a barbecue brought everyone together. Conversations flowed easily through laughter, food and curiosity, and language differences quickly felt less important than simply spending time together.

Sharing meals became an important part of the week, shaped by the rhythm of the studio. These moments created space for connection before any formal work began.

It was a reminder that connection often starts long before we find the right words.

Sharing Practice and Exploring the City

The residency offered opportunities to learn about each other’s creative practices and approaches to making. Artists from kaethe:k generously shared their work, processes and ideas, offering insight into the different ways creativity can express identity, experience and imagination.

We heard from all the artists in the studio, each sharing their own practice in open and informal ways.

This included Michelle, whose archive Skuejer presents a fictional world exploring the relationship between flora and fauna through shapeshifting, human-animal hybrid creatures. We also spent time with Luis García Bohlscheid, whose textile-based installation work explores festivity, customs and pageantry, often incorporating costume and large-scale spatial forms.

These moments were not formal presentations, but open conversations about ideas, materials and ways of working.

Workshops with Caspar encouraged us to look differently at the everyday world around us. Through photography and drawing, we searched for faces, characters and stories hidden in ordinary objects and environments. These playful exercises opened up conversations about observation and perspective.

Alongside studio time, we explored Cologne together, including a visit to the Cathedral. Moving through the city as a group created shared reference points that shaped conversations throughout the week.

Developing Shared language

At different points during the week, we started developing shared symbol, a kind of visual language that everyone could contribute to and understand.

These came out of drawing, making and conversation in the studio. We explored different ideas together, testing what worked and what didn’t, and responding to each other as we went.

It was a playful and open process, where we were constantly negotiating meaning together.

Learning Through Objects and Stories

We travelled by train to Ehrenfeld Mosque, where we took part in a Museum in a Box workshop with Moscheeforum Köln.

Museum in a Box is a touring exhibition that brings museum collections into communities. It is designed to make museum archives and stories more accessible, opening them up to more people and encouraging conversation around values, identity and community.

Each participant chose a personal object and created a small display around it.

These objects became a way of sharing stories about identity, memory and values without needing long explanations. The simplicity of the format allowed different kinds of understanding to emerge.

The Importance of Everyday Moments

While workshops and visits shaped the structure of the residency, some of the most meaningful experiences happened in between.

Shared meals, journeys across the city, birthday celebrations for Cam and Emma, and time spent walking, talking and being together all became part of the week.

These moments helped build trust and familiarity, and also created space to reflect on what was happening in the studio.

They reminded us that collaboration is shaped not only by making work, but by everything that happens around it.

Looking Ahead

By the end of the week, we were tired but energised by everything that had taken place.

No single moment defined the experience. Instead, it was shaped by many small exchanges — through images, objects, gestures and time spent together.

We are very grateful to everyone at kaethe:k Kunsthaus, especially Marren, Isobel, Mona and Caspar, for their generosity and welcome throughout the week.

Shared Lines is only just beginning, and we are looking forward to welcoming our friends from Cologne to the UK in October for the next stage of the project.

The connections we began in Cologne continue to grow.

Watch this space.