Since 2015, Alison Lam has been working with neurodivergent communities in the UK to share and connect over stories that navigate the sensory, emotional and practical challenges of the everyday.
Mind the Gap explores the experience of overwhelm from neurodivergent perspectives, highlighting the often invisible emotional and practical labour. Focusing on the challenge of preparing to leave home and navigate the world outside, Lam’s question ‘How was your journey here today?’ invites all audiences to reflect on how even the simple act of leaving and arriving can carry deep emotional weight.
Mind the Gap is co-created with neurodivergent participants, reframing overwhelm as a space of resilience instead of a purely negative experience. Like a lotus blooming from muddy waters, a recurring symbol in Lam’s work, neurodivergent individuals navigate cycles of overwhelm with strength and grace.
Lam’s adaptation at Museum of the Home builds on previous work shown at SEESAW, Manchester and Westminster Reference Library, London. Mind the Gap sheds light on hidden experiences of the home by inviting audiences to think of the home not just as a physical space but as a feeling, a negotiation and an experience shaped by identity and circumstance. Drawing on symbols around doors and windows, Mind the Gap at the Museum considers the thresholds where calm meets chaos and where home can feel both protective and confining.
Through this adaptation, Alison Lam invites everyone to experience the world through a neurodivergent lens, offering a chance to engage and reflect with an important yet often invisible human experience.
This exhibition is co-curated with Celina Loh of In Transit Space CIC and ESEA Programme at Museum of the Home.
Alison Lam, Artist
Through her socially engaged practice, she investigates themes of grief, discardment and ostracisation using experimental, hands-on processes she describes as “drawing with her hands.” Alison’s art is deeply shaped by her experiences as a mother to two autistic sons with complex needs as she explores resilience, inclusion and the hidden beauty in overlooked details.
Alison lives and works in London. She has been an Artist in Residence at Lauderdale House and a Guest Lecturer at Brighton University, Middlesex University, and the MASS Sculpture Course.
Recent solo exhibitions include This is Where I Leave You at Studio KIND in 2024 and Conversation Starters: Suspended in Time at Espacio Gallery in 2023. She has also exhibited in group shows such as Fresh Air Sculpture in 2024, Ugly Duck in 2023 and October Gallery in 2022.
Alison has delivered workshops for institutions including the British Library and has been a speaker at events such as the Cultural Inclusion Manifesto Conference (2024), eseacontemporary Manchester, ArtCan and Autograph Gallery’s Rights in Focus Conference. Her work has been supported by funding from Arts Council England’s DYCP programme and a National Lottery Project Grant.
Instagram: @alisonlam_art
Celina Loh, Co-curator
Her practice prioritises care, equity and community-led access strategies, actively challenging exclusionary norms within online and hybrid cultural spaces.
She is Project Manager at FRANK Fair Artist Pay where she co-leads on development of FRANK tools that centre fair remuneration and fair practices in the arts. Celina served on the selection panel for Unlimited’s UK Open Awards 2023/24.
Celina has curated international projects at HOME Manchester, Chelsea Space (London), WEGO-ITN (Netherlands), and Hin Bus Depot (Malaysia). Her work has been supported by Arts Council England, British Council and British Art Network.
Instagram: @celinaloh_
Events programme
Mind the Gap – Opening Ceremony
Join us for the opening of Mind the Gap exhibition, with a short film screening and talk from Alison Lam and Celina Loh, plus food by Otis Darlington.
Thursday 21 August 2025
Free
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