Hana Qureshi reflects on her experience on a work placement with our team.

When my brother’s friend invited me to the premiere of his latest documentary film, I said yes without hesitation. After Eight was screened at RichMix as part of the PopChange programme, a strand of work from Counterpoints that explores how the power of pop culture can be harnessed to shift the way we talk, think, and feel about migration and displacement.

For me, with a background spanning human rights and freelance cultural producing, Counterpoints seemed to be the perfect blend of arts programming at the intersection of climate, racial justice, mental health and displacement. I was in between jobs at the time and looking for more structured experience in arts producing, so when I got home from the premiere later that night, I found a contact email on the Counterpoints website and shot my shot.

One month, a few email exchanges and an informal interview later, I started in a voluntary role as an Assistant Producer supporting Lara Deffense, the Refugee Week UK & Global Coordinator.

Refugee Week is the world’s largest arts and culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary, and I got stuck right in helping deliver the Refugee Week 2026 Conference.

I supported everything from facilitating a mini away-day with the Refugee Week national partners, to attending a meeting with IOM to discuss their plans for the festival, to creating Eventbrite pages, newsletters, impact reports and public resources. In a matter of months, I’ve had the chance to contribute end-to-end on a large-scale international conference.

When I first reached out to Counterpoints, I didn’t really know what to expect, but I’ve come away from this placement with a much deeper understanding of what it takes to produce meaningful, inclusive cultural events, and a clearer sense of the creative, community-rooted work I want to pursue.

There is so much I’ve learnt practically over my time at Counterpoints, but there is even more I’ve absorbed through quiet observation.

Collaboration is at the heart of this team, and I have benefited simply by being present in a room where open, creative and thoughtful conversations are happening. The team at Counterpoints are genuinely the kindest and most welcoming group of people I’ve ever met, all bound together by a commitment to supporting, platforming and championing artists from refugee and migrant backgrounds.

They’ve taught me how to approach Arts Council funding applications, how to continue developing my own producing practice, and how the arts and culture sector can play a pivotal role in narrative change surrounding conversations about refugees and people seeking sanctuary.

And it’s not just me who has benefited from these conversations. When the Counterpoints team say they have an open-door policy, they really mean it. In my short time with them, I’ve lost count of how many artists have walked into our small but mighty office in Hoxton seeking advice, guidance, or simply someone to bounce ideas off. From a musician from Gaza hoping to start a music therapy programme to an Indian classical vocalist searching for collaborators, the doors at Counterpoints are open to anyone with a story to tell.

It’s a tough time to be a young person in the UK. Youth unemployment rates are the highest they’ve been in a decade, and the arts and culture sector is notoriously difficult to break into. The decision to pivot into cultural producing wasn’t an easy one to make, but the staff at Counterpoints welcomed me with wide, outstretched arms; answered every question I had with depth and attention; and treated me like a valued member of their team.

Ultimately, it is the skills I’ve gained and the relationships I’ve built over the last few months that have given me the confidence to throw myself into my own creative practice. Being surrounded by artists, organisers, and storytellers has reshaped how I think about creativity as a tool for belonging and social change, and I hope I can emulate the same culture of collaboration, openness and knowledge sharing in every creative space I’m part of moving forward.