St Luke's visit to Wolverhampton City Archives

A group of 30 children visited Wolverhampton City Archives as part of BCVA's Apna Heritage Archive project. The children learned about the value of archives and the history of the Molineux Hotel building. Along with a visit to the strong rooms and taking photographs of the buildings architecture conservator Jon Everall and City Archivist Heidi McIntosh shared their knowledge with the children and staff. A big thank you to all the staff at Wolverhampton City Archives for an exciting and historical afternoon!

Pupils at St Luke's primary school learn the value of archives

BCVA once again teamed up with St Luke's C of E primary school in Blakenhall to talk about our new Apna Heritage Archive project. Over the course of 4 workshops they will learn about the value of archives and how to create their very own archive made up of portraits and information about themselves.  The children learned how to take a portrait through a practical game of 'human camera' and portrait session. Over the next few workshops we will visit the Wolverhampton City Archives to learn more about archival practice and take new portraits in national dress. A big thank you to all the staff and children for their hard work and enthusiasm for the project. Apna Heritage Archive is funded by Heritage Lottery Fund.

Desi Pubs makes it to Alchemy 2016 at the Southbank Center

Creative Black Country's commissioned work by six artists at six Black Country pubs opens at the Southbank Alchemy festival 2016. The opening night was a huge success with a coach full of Desi Pub landlords and Artist arriving at the Royal Festival Hall in style! The Alchemy festival showcases the talents of Artists from around the world, celebrating the rich cultural relationship between the Indian subcontinent and the UK. Artists at BCVA displayed 18 portraits taken at The Island Inn and The Sportsman Club both in West Bromwich.

Apna Heritage Archive Instagram post leads to tweets by two Wolverhampton born writers!

A post on Twitter by Wolverhampton born journalist Sathnam Sanghera " Lovely new Instagram account aiming to collate some British Asian history" was followed by a re tweet by fellow Wolverhampton born comedian and writer Mera Syal " These old b/w snaps make everything look like a movie still. Cherish and share, photos on a phone just can't compete."

'Desi Pubs' BCVA interview with Cyrus Todiwala by BBC's Ruchi Tandon

Cyrus Todiwala was in the Black Country today visiting the 'Desi Pubs' project and meeting some of the artists that are creating new work at the pubs. Anand and Sra talked with Cyrus and Ruchi about their portrait work and the interesting stories behind them. It was great to hear Cyrus's take on the 'Desi Pub' story here in the Black Country.

Over the last few months Anand and Sra have created new portraits at the Island Inn and The Sportsman Club, both in West Bromwich as part of a Creative Black Country commission.   

'Apna Heritage Archive' Black Country Visual Arts CIC wins Heritage Lottery Fund support

Black Country Visual Arts CIC has received £68,600 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for an exciting project, Apna Heritage Archive, in Wolverhampton. Led by Black Country Visual Arts and supported by a range of local partners and volunteers, the project will create an original photographic archive of Punjabi migration to the city from 1960 to 1989. The Apna Heritage archive will exist within Guru Teg Bahadur Gurdwara in Blakenhall with a digital copy available at the City Archives. The project will run for two years until early 2018.

Thanks to National Lottery players the project will engage Punjabi residents of Wolverhampton to learn about and discuss their heritage contributing their historic family photographs to the new archive. Seventy-five portraits will also be taken providing a present day record. Community volunteers will learn about the value of heritage and develop skills to create and maintain the visual archive. A creative learning and heritage project with St Luke’s Primary School will run alongside the project. Year 6 school children will learn and develop heritage research skills and create their own archive of the school and local Blakenhall community.

The BCVA project partnership includes: Guru Teg Bahadur Gurdwara, St Luke’s Primary School, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton City Archives and the University of Wolverhampton. 

Creative Black Country commissions BCVA for 'Desi Pubs' project.

‘It’s an East meets West story, where the classic English pub with its ales, dart, dominos & sports meets Punjabi food and Bhangra music. Asian landlords have been salvaging the struggling pub trade by reinventing failed pubs as independent businesses reaching out to a wide range of customers from the Black Country’s diverse communities. What started as a safe-haven for young Asian pub goes in the 70s has blossomed into a unique Black Country success story.’ – Creative Black Country

 We are excited to be working alongside six local artists at eight different Desi Pubs in the Black Country. Working closely with the ‘Pub Family’ made up of landlords, staff and regulars BCVA will create a series of portraits at The Sportsman and The Island Inn, both in West Bromwich. This will culminate in an exhibition and in May.

'Desi pubs' is a fantastic story for the Black Country! Pubs now in the hands of many South Asian landlords represent the changing landscape of the Black Country and yet they serve all sections of their communities. Black Country Visual Arts is very happy to photograph and document the rise of the 'Desi pub'. As a feature project, utilising photographic art that communicates the truth of this story and its history is perfect for the project' -  Anand Chhabra - BCVA

You can find out more about the project at www.creativeblackcountry.co.uk

'Supnaa' Exhibition at Bantock House Museum 18th Nov - 21st Dec 2015

BCVA & Exodus project make headlines in Express & Star 'Art Tribute'

Black Country Visual Arts ground breaking arts project makes headlines in local press. The double page article highlights the importance of the project within the community and goes on to interview some of the participants. This was an opportunity for them to tell their stories first hand. Award winning author Sathnam Sanghera said he was pleased to see that Black Country Visual Arts was attempting to tell migrants stories through its Exodus project.  

Exodus PDF

Exodus - Exhibition Launch 15th October 2015

We had fantastic turn out for our launch evening at Bantock House Museum for Exodus 'Movement of a People' . It was great to see the participants, family and friends along with special guests attend an evening of celebration. The Express and Star also came along to interview and photograph the participants for a special article. BCVA would like to thank all of our guests for making it such a special event. 

The display of black and white images in the community gallery was a focal point for many stories of the past. During the evening it came to light that a lot of the participants knew each other from the 1960's ! 

This was the first time that the new portraits were seen by the subjects themselves and were greatly received by both themselves and family members. For most this was a first time experience in a gallery environment and all have vowed to come back and showcase the exhibition to others in the community. This is a resounding success for BCVA in our goal to engage more diverse audiences within visual arts.   

Exhibition at Bantock House Museum 13th Oct - 12th Nov 2015

As part of Black Country Visual Arts artists Anand Chhabra and Sarvjit Sra have worked closely with first generation migrants of South Asian origin in Wolverhampton.  They have created a collection of photographs by carefully selecting and scanning the personal albums of 17 families.

Within the main gallery space (ground floor) the artists have on display 12 recent portraits of migrants that arrived in the 1960’s. The participants are holding some of the earliest images of themselves along with descendants holding images commemorating family members who have passed on since arrival.

 The Community Gallery (first floor) houses the collection of scanned black and white images that represent the communities that we have reached as part of our research. The images show a community at social and cultural events in those early days.

 Through this method of scanning and taking new photographic portraits the aim of the artists has been to tell a story of what people looked like then and now. We have set out our exhibition to create an imprint on our audience about a group of migrants who put down roots, integrated with life, work and play around them, making a lasting impact to the city.

Going forward our aim is to create an installation called ‘Arrivals Hall’ which will consist of a life size airport luggage conveyor belt carrying the black and white images. This will be a touring installation with an actual rotating conveyor belt with printed images. The moving belt signifies the arrival and onward movement of a people. The installation will include a separate series of current portraits of the participants.

We would like to thank the following for their support during our research: Arts Council England, Multistory, Wolverhampton City Archives, Bantock House Museum, BM Autoparts, Humjoli Ladies Group (Dunstall), Kaleidoscope Group (Pennfields), St Chads Ladies Group (Cherry St), Park Village Ladies Group (Park Village).  

A Great Find !

During our search for photographs and ephemera we came across a document dated 26th April 1963 sent from 'Office of the High Commissioner for the United Kingdom'. This is a great example of the type of correspondence that took place at the time of migration in the 1960's. 

BCVA at St Luke's Church of England Primary School

BCVA teamed up with St Luke's school in Blakenhall Wolverhampton to talk about their "Exodus" project and the installation we want to create with our collection of images. The children had brought in their vintage photographs and talked about why the photographs were meaningful to them. 

The workshop included making our own photographs using a Fujifilm Instax camera. The children were amazed with the analogue instant prints, no delete button here ! Some of the children had never seen an instant print !

Overall the workshop was a great success and we felt that the children learned the importance of taking pictures, creating memories and actually handling prints. A big thank you to Clare Williams, Staff and especially the children at St Luke's school.  

BBC WM Midlands Masala

In April Anand and Sarvjit were invited as live studio guests by the BBC WM Midland Masala radio show. We were interviewed by DJ Qasa about our 'Exodus' project and reasons behind it. This was a great opportunity that allowed us to reach out to over 250,000 listeners ! 

Dunstall Hill Community Centre

We had a warm welcome at Dunstall ladies group along with a lovely cup of tea !  Over the last few months we have built up a good relationship with the group that resulted in the sharing of great photographs, memories and stories.

During our visits we have collected some fantastic images from the Dunstall group that will be used as part of the R&D for the 'Exodus' project.

Park Village Day Centre

Anand talks to one of the members of Park Village ladies group who meet on a weekly basis. As part of our research and development we are reaching out to local community groups to talk about the Exodus project and collect black and white images that will make up our final arts installation. This was one of the first groups we visited due to its location being one the areas early migrants settled in during the 1960's. The reception we got from the group was very positive and resulted in the telling of stories from the past.

We took along some black and white images that and shared them with the group.  The group recognised  some of the faces in the photographs and actually knew both our families !