Throughout 2016 and 2017, we worked with The Homeless World Cup to create an inspiring new story for the Women’s International League. The women’s game is as much a core part of the event as the men’s but unfortunately does not have a trophy of its own.

We worked with artists Sarah Forrest and Virginia Hutchison (In the Shadow of the Hand) to work directly with the women who play in the Scottish team and other women who have a background in homelessness. They worked together to create an art work for the women’s tournament that centred the community within the creative process.

The resulting cup was sculpted and cast in aluminium using the artists’ own foundry with participants learning about the foundry and metal pouring processes as well as exploring how to cast objects in a range of different materials.

As part of the design process the artists hosted a series of sculptural workshops to generate conversations and ideas about the form, shape and concept of the cup. This took the form of a series of workshops and one live metal pour where participants and the public witnessed the live creation of the trophy.

The new Women’s World Cup Trophy was launched here at GSS in July 2017 before travelling to the next tournament in Oslo on 29 August.

The Homeless World Cup was established in 2003 as a small league in Austria and has now grown to 64 teams around the world. The project makes a positive impact on the lives of many individuals who are battling homelessness, improves social relations with family and friends and encourages a healthy involvement in sport. The reach of the Homeless World Cup extends much farther than just the players with 100,000 homeless people involved every year taking part in outreach and community projects. It has impacted the lives of 1 million homeless people around the world since it was established.