Having founded our sister organisation specifically for BIPOC photographers and artists in the Midlands in February 2020. We were very fortunate to have 3 additional bursaries added to the 2 which were granted by the Arts Council. These have come by way of generosity from organisations across the Midlands like Kalaphool, Birmingham University & New Art Exchange. And so we got our first project underway called the Digital Diaspora : COVID-19 Midlands. Along with our 5 bursary recipients and 9 participants from our 9 week ReFramed workshop attendees, we began to document the disproportionate effects of the disease on BIPOC communities which feature themes of loneliness, isolation, faith, loss of income, lockdown upon them during these strange times. The outcome after mentoring by ReFramed is a fantastically curated 75 page book (arranged by our director Sebah Chaudhry) Its out any day now here’s a few double pages to show you a sneak peak of some of their brilliant work.
Applications open to study British South Asian Heritage around home and work with BCVA & University of Brighton.
We are excited to announce that we are working with University of Brighton and their fully funded PhD to work on the above project will be supervised by Dr Megha Rajguru, Dr Anabell Pollen and Dr Darren Newbury. This project will contribute towards ethnically inclusive British design and photographic histories, aligning with urgent calls for representative and decolonial disciplines. It aims to:
use the Black Country Visual Arts’ Apna and Punjabi Workers photographic archives to study the relationship between factory work, leisure and domesticity and their photographic representations. In particular, the collections will form the departure point for exploration of the role of industrial production and manual labour in the lives of the Punjabi diasporic communities, for whom, owing to migration laws, work formed a lynchpin for creating a home in post-war Britain.
examine how archival resources can contribute to greater understandings of the processes of home-making, production of British identities and community heritage practices amid chronic racism in the Black Country from the 1960s.
analyse the role and agency of the photographic archive in the constructions of memories of ‘homeland’ through the survey and interpretation of extant collections and the recording, collecting and preservation of further photographs.
The student will have the opportunity to devise their own project with supervisory guidance, and consult supporting and comparative sources for historical and contextual material: Wolverhampton City Archives and other partners.
Formore details and how to apply here :- https://www.brighton.ac.uk/research-and-enterprise/postgraduate-research-degrees/funding-opportunities-and-studentships/2021-ahrc-techne-home-and-factory.aspx
SUPNAA : Dreams of our Fathers exhibition at FORMAT'21 UK's biggest Photo Festival - Press Launch
A great honour for director Anand Chhabra SUPNAA : Dreams of our Fathers for FORMAT’21 exhibtion (ACE funded). The FORMAT organisers really know how to put on a show (even online!). Following the award Anand received from Daylight books in New York at FORMAT ‘20 Portfolio Review. (A massive shout out to new BCVA director Sebah Chaudhry for encouraging the work to be showcased at the portfolio review!) The work focusses on Anand Chhabra’s parents and the formative years of migration to the UK 1960-90s. Using dream like imagery Anand creates a narrative for the untold story of Punjabi Migrants in Wolverhampton a city with the largest number of Punjabi’s outside London (40,000). You can see the press launch with Anand’s work featured at the beginning of their multimedia film on the theme of control. Due to COVID -19 the physical exhibition will be available later in the year along with a community outreach programme and tours and there will be a unique 3D fly through of Anand’s work to be seen from March 12th 2021.
Small Axe - On the set of Oscar Winning director Steve McQueen's series now streaming on BBC iplayer
Small Axe is a series that looks at life growing up in the 1970s-80s and depicts the realities of life and racial hatred from the public and authorities against People of Colour. Steve McQueen has done a great job of retelling these stories of real life people through his series which is now available for streaming on BBC iplayer. Director Anand Chhabra saw at first hand the production in November 2019 in his images below of the ‘Red, White and Blue story of Leroy Logan on set. Leroy was a pioneering Black people officer who tried to make changes within the force and was subject to a lot of racial hatred within the police force. The actor John Boyega brilliantly assumes his role. This film is very much in line with our own projects retelling history which you will see here as we retell the stories of Black & Asian and people of colour.
Oscar winning Director Steve McQueen on set of Red, White and Blue © Anand Chhabra
Actor plays a young Leroy Logan being harassed by policemen on the set of ‘Red, White and Blue’ ©Anand Chhabra
FormatFestival - Instagram takeover for SUPNAA: Dreams of our Fathers OCT 26-30 2020
It was a great pleasure for Anand Chhabra director of BCVA to be invited by FORMAT FESTIVAL team to takeover their Instagram page for the last week of October. The invitation was for all recipients of various awards given at FORMAT ‘20 portfolio reviews this year. SUPNAA received the award for a Multimedia presentation production via Daylight Books from New York and if you scroll below on this blog page you’ll see the AV presentation. During this week Anand will be largely creating narrative about how he is constructing a body of work that communicates story of their migration and the tension of their formative years.
ReFramed workshops for the Digital Diaspora : Covid 19 project underway
Along with our bursary awards which we launched in June with the ReFramed organisation (black and asian network for photographers in the Midlands) The ReFramed team (Sebah Chaudhry, Andrew Jackson, Jagdish Patel & Anand Chhabra have been working with 9 attendees from a variety of ethnic backgrounds working towards producing 3-5 images. We are currently looking to produce our photographic publication around COVID-19 affect on the BAME community with the bursary recipients and workshop attendees. They have all produced some excellent work which should also bee seen online very soon.
Presence. Absence and the Melting Snows - by BCVA director Jagdish Patel
We are very fortunate to have Jagdish Patel here as director at BCVA and has bought his influence from his work to us on the historical, cultural and socio-political interest to us. In this fantastic exhibition from end of last year is the video about why this project was necessary. It was a very enlightening experience for the BIPOC community to see this untold story as part of their history. The process of public remembrance about the World Wars, through memorials, books, films and paintings, has created a national narrative without the presence of black and Asian soldiers, not only in this country, but also in many of the former colonies. A better sense of a shared global history is imperative if we want to understand each other. At the end of the Second World War, Germany, India, Palestine and West Africa, would be partitioned and most political boundaries across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East would be altered. In this process, millions of people died or were forcibly displaced. To see more of his brilliant work got here https://www.jagdishpatel.com
BCVA directors invited as ReFramed network and discussion on Photo-Activism
We are delighted to announce we will be speaking at yet another national platform for photography this courtesy of time at Impression focussing our presentation of how the western gaze upon black brown bodies in historic media and how this has impacted upon BIPOC communities and how ethics in taking images should be conducted along with discussions on why its necessary to have a Black and Asian Network in the Midlands. Reframed artists and curators will also present their work. Book for this event at Impressions Gallery online.
Supnaa : Dreams of our Fathers- produced by Daylight Books with FORMAT '20
Anand Chhabra presented his work SUPNAA: Dreams of our Fathers to portfolio reviewers at FORMAT 20 in July this year and received the International award from Mike Itkoff from Daylight Books in New York. You should definitely check their work out on www.daylight books.org…WOW.. The award was to produce an AV of the artists project. It represents another milestone in the projects development after being shortlisted for Magnum Foundation Photography in Collaboration : Migration & Religion award in 2018 and nominated for Prix Pictet in 2019. Special thanks to their staff multimedia editor Elysabeth Martin for some hard work.
ReFramed network discuss the need for a BIPOC network for photographers at FORMAT Photoforum
Representation for BIPOC community of photographers and artists hasn’t really existed within the Midlands. After largely solely white led organisations have been present in the region for a while, especially when many of our towns and cities in the Midlands are largely diverse, the question remains why is it that there have been no Black or Asian photographers networks with a diverse leadership and how then can an organisation reflect and serve their communities?? Along with Andrew Jackson director of BCVA Sebah Chaudhry, Jagdish Patel and Anand Chhabra discuss their photography works and the need for ReFramed network. Special thanks for to Louise Fedetov Clements for the invitation to the FORMAT PhotoForum to start the discussion. FORMAT hosts the largest photography Festival in the UK biannually.
ACE National emergency support for BCVA to launch ReFramed and The Digital Diaspora: COVID 19 project.
Black Country Visual Arts have been awarded emergency funding by Arts Council England. BCVA Directors, Anand Chhabra & Jagdish Patel, welcome the award. It will mean the during this period, we can continue to help to profile the stories of under-represented BAME communities through the Digital Diaspora project.
The Digital Diaspora: Midlands Covid 19 project seeks to document how the pandemic has disproportionately affected the BAME community across the Midlands.The funding will allow us to work with other BAME artists through our newly established ReFramed Network.
The ReFramed Network is a collaboration with artist Andrew Jackson and curator Sebah Chaudhry and will help profile work from new emerging BAME artists from across the region. The network will, over time, provide support to BAME photographers and local BAME communities.
The Digital Diaspora project will be providing two bursaries for emerging BAME artists to create new work and will be running workshops within the local BAME community.
If you want to find out more about the project, or the opportunities visit the website at www.reframed.uk
Historic England commission images on COVID-19 in the National Press- June 4th 2020.
Anand Chhabra was commissioned by Historic England to document the effects of COVID-19 for 7 days (please see 7 Days with COVID-19 https://www.bcva.info/7-days-with-covid19) . He was chosen as one of 10 regional photographers all working under social distancing regulations. This meant at the time of the commission Anand could only photograph within a radius of 500 meters of his home - and then only submitting a single image to Historic England at the end of each day.
The most important aspect for Anand was the unintentional way his photographs began to reveal how the disease was affecting those from the BAME community. Anand’s photographs show the extent at which people were impacted by the pandemic. Jaminder Singh, for example, who had recently had major heart surgery was at a local supermarket, 200 meters from Anand’s home in Wolverhampton and astonishingly fully clad in PPE. A couple of days later Anand photographed at the allotments near his home as part of the commision and took a portrait of Jenny Mclean a Jamaican lady who had lost her best friend of 33 years. She spoke to Anand about being at the funeral the day before which she described was an emotionally sickening event for her.
Anand Chhabra’s image (main centre) commissioned by Historic England used by National Press to report on COVID-19 affecting BAME communities in UK.
Punjabi Workers exhibition at Dudley archives cancelled due to Coronavirus 4th April - 1st June 2020
Anand Chhabra’s exhibtion for the Living Memory Project has unfortunately had to be cancelled but understandably so in the interest of public safety because of COVID-19, the virus that is shaking the world at the time of writing. The exhibtion was due to start from 4th April. Largely Anand was asked to be based in Dudley by Geoff Broadway director of the Living Memory project. Anand chose to work with students at Dudley College as well as conduct research on this area of interest surrounding Punjabi workers. We are looking to reschedule the exhibtion and base it in Walsall later in the summer, should the issues abate surrounding coronavirus. Here are some of the images that were due to go on display as part of Anand’s research into archives of early migrant Punjabi workers lives in the Black Country. All current portraits © Anand Chhabra
Wolverhampton Mayor's Invitation Family Tree Day March 20th 2020. (Cancelled due to Covid-19)
Great to be back presenting on the research and impact of the Apna Heritage Archive in Wolverhampton where it originates. This time director Anand Chhabra as a keynote speaker will present a personal view of the timeline of migration to Wolverhampton through a photographic history 1960s-80s and impacts the project & acclaimed exhibition had on the City’s Punjabis. The day is aligned with some fantastic workshops and stories around archives from such a great line up of speakers and workshop hosts from the BC area! So looking forward to being a part of Mayor Claire Darke’s City wide Event! Book here or regret it forever! https://eventbrite.co.uk/e/family-tree-day-tickets.
'Moving to the City' - Exhibition launch & Artist Talk by Anand Chhabra Feb 7th 2020 - Arts Council England funded
‘Moving to the City’ has been a fantastic & enjoyable project to work for our Director Anand Chhabra. This project was commissioned by WAAS & funded by Arts Council England, Anand worked with various ethnic community groups in Worcester during 2018-19 co-creating work them for exhibition in Feb 2020. The work which comprised of various mosaic images & portraits (x4) 6ft x 4 ft portrait sculptures were then exhibited at The HIVE in Worcester where he held his residency during this time. The launch event was a great time celebrating the project with participants and colleagues from HIVe as well as arts organisations from the region. Special thanks to HIVE & WAAS colleagues in ensuring a great space for visitors to enjoy this work. Many positive words written about the artwork on the visitors book.
Participants and the regions artists and leaders came to here the talk about Anand Chhabra’s residency at the HIVE and supported by WAAS and Arts Council England.
The event was officially opened by the City’s Mayor Allah Ditta on Feb 7th 2020. Over 13000 visitors saw the exhibition at the fantastic venue The HIVE in Worcester during the month.
Installation of 'Moving to the City' exhibition at HIVE in Worcester Feb 3rd 2020 - Arts Council England Funded
Finally after 2 years of working very hard with varied multicultural and ethnic minority groups in Worcester Director Anand Chhabra is installing the work as part of his residency at the HIVE in Worcester (ACE funded) entitled ‘Moving to the City’. The work has been co-created with the local community. The final artworks changed from a planned framed series of images to fixate on the wall to having huge boards 6x4 foot from the portraits and then superimposing the images that the community produced (3600 images used). Thinking about the use of the large exhibition space led to the change and a stronger and unique development that the artist was excited by and will work well in attracting a larger and more present audience so more locals can be impacted by it. This will help HIVE’s understanding of giving the artist the time & autonomy needed to develop the way they work. Feedback from visitors in the visitors book and at the forthcoming celebration event will also record and find out people’s views and ideas for developing work like this in future.
Final touches for the installation of exhibtion ‘Moving to the City’ artwork and curation by Anand Chhabra/Arts Council England funded
Close up view of work created by community groups and superimposed on the portraits created by © Anand Chhabra/Arts Council England Funded
Meeting Lenny Henry......in Auckland New Zealand Jan 2020
Two Black Country blokes meet in a cafe in Auckland New Zealand…..(what we were doing there is a story for another day!) I was a bit startsruck with meeting Sir Lenny Henry….when I saw him I went up to him and said ‘Yowm from Dudley aye ya!? He was startled by it and so I introduced myself and when I told him I was from Wolverhampton he enquired ‘What are you doing here!?’ So I told him and that started a conversation oddly enough me telling him my wife had bought me a copy of his new book (Who am I Again?|) for Christmas which I had started reading and immediately followed up with watching the Alan Yentob Arena documentary which focused on Lenny early life. So it was a surreal experience to meet the man himself and in New Zealand! He was interested in knowing what I thought about his book to which I said I loved looking at the archive images and had found the his story on his early life in Dudley which particularly centred around his mum really fascinating, as the story resonates and reminds me of my own experience of parents who had migrated to the Black Country at the same time. Sir Lenny is a true gentleman and took time to speak and take a selfie…..made up!
'Moving to the City' exhibtion invites have gone out!
Looking forward to the invite Invitation : Moving to the City
Exhibition Launch and Artist Talk
Please join us for the launch event of 'Moving to the City'. Artist Anand Chhabra will be exhibting a series of portrait diptychs commissioned by HIVE Worcester and in partnership with Arts Council England. The artist will present a talk about his participatory arts practise amongst migrant communities who have settled within the City of Worcester. Anand's large scale mosaics have been co-created with individuals, school pupils and community groups through
photography workshops during his residency.
The exhibition will be officially launched by the City's Mayor after a short talk by the Artist in the Studio room. Light refereshments will be available.
TIME: 6.30p.m - 8.00p.m 11th Feb 2020
VENUE : The HIVE Sawmill Close. The Butts, Worcester WR1 3PD.
Different and yet the Same Portrait Diptychs co-created by the local community & Artist © Anand Chhabra
National Trust Artists, Academics & Evaluation - Informing the Eastern Museum in a 'Year of listening'
Working as a Community Engagement Consultant for the National Trust property at Kedleston Hall in Derby for their Year of Listening, Anand has been working reaching out to communities and encouraging them to explore the collection as well as help inform Kedleston Hall as to how to share the future curation of the Museum. For many of these such communities living in Derby they have been invited to explore freely and feedback to the National Trust reasons to bring about the changes needed for the Eastern Museum and how they would like to see a future curation take shape with their own cultural reasons for doing so.
Anand thought it would be good idea to invite a group of artists and academics and University students from South Asian origin to also put inform the year of listening at Kedleston. Joining up with Derby Museums, various days were held to invite small groups with big minds to feedback to the team of staff at Kedleston.
We also met to evaluate how far Kedleston hall has moved in community relationships through Anand’s role (see last two photographs) and the good news has been its been an upwards trajectory with links from communities, stakeholders and organisations, artists and academics for the Trust to build on going forward!
Staff introduce artists, academics and staff into the Eastern Museum at Kedleston Hall
Artists such as Joginder begin to discuss ways of curating the objects with a whole range of different groups who may visit
Feeding back to the questions set up by Anand & staff at Kedleston Hall.
Post it notes on thoughts to further questions displayed at the museum for feedback by Asian artists and academics.
Discussions continue after lunch about the changes that could be made by artists and academics to staff at Kedleston Hall.
A before graph charting Kedleston Hall’s community outreach connections before enlisting Anand Chhabra’s help.
An after graph of communities informed, consulted, engaged and partners raised during Anand’s role as CEC at Kedleston Hall.
Diwan Manna at Dudley College.
December was an intense month for projects as Anand arranged a number of things for Dudley College students to to be enlightened on, this event was arranged for Anand’s work on the Living Memory Project whereby Anand was commissioned to be situated in Dudley town. With Diwan Manna president of the Punjab Lalit Kala Akademie in Chandigarh, Punjab, India arriving in the UK. Anand asked if Diwan would visit & inspire the students by his own arts work as he is a collected photographic artist in some of the worlds major institutions. Diwan agreed & has been a great supporter and bent over backwards in getting the message about the archive in all the media across India and televised an interview with Parul an award wining journalist from the Punjab. That particular interview has been seen around the world by Punjabi’s internationally and even from people in Wolverhampton where it originated! There is not a media outlet that I didn’t conduct some sort of interview with through Diwan’s network right across North India in the short time I was there. BCVA is in much gratitude for what DIwan achieved on our behalf! Diwan spoke to a packed audience and articulated what it takes to be a artist through his amazing work, inspiring students to move on to higher education and think like an artist in order to develop their work further. Anand also arranged for Diwan to speak later in the week at University of Wolverhampton to Degree students there and managed to agree a future student exchange visits with the course leader.
Diwan Manna President of the major arts organisation in the Punjab inspires photo students about his own portfolio held in major collections around the world and how he aspires to create artistic work. © Anand Chhabra
Students listen intently and hang on every word from Diwan’s fantastic presentation. © Anand Chhabra
Students engage with Diwan through a Q/A session at the end of Diwan’s presentation. © Anand Chhabra