PhD student Kamal Badhey joins our planned workshop at Black Country Living Museum with the Punjabi group

Kamal Badhey an American Documentary photographer from New York joined our workshops for the Punjabi communities at BCLM and will be conducting her own interviews and research areas for BCVA around the work of the Apna Heritage Archive. The PhD funding has been granted through the AHRC via the University of Brighton. Chair Anand Chhabra is a a supervisor and will help organise various activities that Kamal has highlighted for research. Kamal was keen to start meeting members of the Punjabi communities in the Black Country for her first year and this is her second visit tothe region . Kamal will be hear for the long haul (3 years) and we welcome her and look forward to supporting her work with us. We are fascinated to see what new discoveries she will find through the archive.

Educational officer at BCLM Janine Downs welcomes the community of ladies to BCLM and wishes to readdress narratives about the Punjabi community for their forthcoming Forging Ahead project at the Museum. IMAGE ©BCVA (An Arts Council Funded project)

The community of ladies enjoy the objects put on show for them by BCLM c1950s-1970s and they re-ignite memories of the post war era in the UK and their subsequent migration to the BC region. IMAGE ©BCVA (An Arts Council Funded project)

PhD student Kamal Badhey looks on to join the discussion as group leaders gather ladies to share their images and stories of the early years of migration. IMAGE ©BCVA (An Arts Council Funded project)

Sharing a photograph like this is indicative of the working lives of many Punjabis with this fantastic image of sewing machines at home in the Black Country. IMAGE ©BCVA (An Arts Council Funded project)

Ladies share some fascinating and emotive stories testament to their struggle to settle in the Black Country during the 1960s-80s IMAGE ©BCVA (An Arts Council Funded project)

BCVA delivers Inaugral note at GRID Heritage exploring transnational migration & intersectionality for the University of Sussex,

The University of Sussex is a framework for their (GRID) Heritage project informed by gender and intersectionality on Indian and diasporic communities so as those people and practices discriminated along the intersecting lines of gender, caste, class, race/ethnicity, sexuality and disability along with their heritage work are fully appreciated, engaged and supported at national and transnational levels. Its our pleasure to be invited as inaugural note speaker here as we explore this theme with visuals and stories unearthed by the Apna Heritage Archive that explore the above. Bookings being taken here:- https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/grid-heritage-launch-of-online-exhibition-and-roundtable-tickets-311282703947

Apna Heritage Archive participant makes history at Black Country Living Museum.

Recently retired shopkeeper Mr Piara Hayre and family have given us some incredible historical images from their family album towards our award winning archive during 2016-18. In 2019 we then nominated him for the ‘100 Masters of the Black Country’ an initiative by Creative Black Country as we thought he would fit the bill having set up as one the first asian shopkeepers in the City of Wolverhampton in 1961 and continuing to work there until the first lockdown of 2020. An incredible history and wisdom to work in a very hard area and through some incredible decades of change. This is testament to an almost unbelievable temperament that Mr Hayre has kept during some turbulent history. More on that some other time! Our current work funded by Arts Council England we have partnered with Black Country Living Museum in a variety of ways which you will find on this blog. We invited them to hear Mr Hayre’s story of migration and settling in the region……and now they will be using actors to act out his story in connection with their huge ‘Forging Ahead’ work! This work is in progress at the Museum and they are setting up various new buildings to recognise history and heritage of the region form the 1950s-1970s. This means representation for Punjabi’s at the museum and will encourage and open up doors for more ethnic members of the community to visit the Museum and discover what it has on offer for them. We look forward to when Mr Hayre and family will visit the Museum and meet the actors who will tell his story which will inform the visitors who attend there. BCLM is the most visited cultural venue in the Midlands so this news is extremely positive for Punjabi’s in the region.

Piara Hayre is interviewed by BCLM staff. Researcher Simon Briercliffe and educational officer Janine Downs at Mr Hayre’s home. He talks through more than 60 years as a migrant to the region and work as a shopkeeper. Inset Jim Hayre. Photo © BCVA. Possible through ACE funding.

Mr Piara Hayre at front of his corner shop on Knox Rd, Wolverhampton c1969.

Mother India through a Creative Lens commissioned by Indy Hunjan/Kalaphool

We jumped at the chance of the invite to work again with brilliant founder of the organisation Kalaphool, Indy Hunjan. Indy offered us the chance to respond to the Mother India through. creative lens project. Directed by Mehboob Khan, the original 3-hour post-independence Bollywood epic was first screened in 1957 and was nominated for an Oscar as ‘Best Foreign Language Film’. Lauded for its stunning cinematography, indelible soundtrack, compelling storyline and powerful performances, the film came to symbolize the post-colonial Indian psyche interpreted through the ambitions, struggles, compassion and endurance of the main character Radha, the metaphorical ‘Mother India’ of the story, played by Indian actress Nargis. Our Chair Anand looked at the intersectionality and the marginality experienced by Punjabi women from the Apna Heritage Archive work as a creative response and challenge by the ‘Goddess’ notion of Indian women which some feminists believed put pressure on Indian women to be something they cannot. Here are the findings of explore through research from the Punjabi archive. More about Kalaphools brilliant work here :- http://kalaphool.com

Indy Hunjan welcomes artists and viewers online as they present there work The event was held at the very plush HIVE lecture theatre at Birmingham Central University in April 2022.

Black Country Living Museum partners with BCVA for a renewed focus on Punjabi communities.

We recently partnered Black Country Living Museum to partner with us with their ‘Forging Ahead’ project. BCLM is the Midlands most visited cultural venue and they have a new focus on the 1950s-1970s in their building programme as a new attraction within the Museum. A couple of their new buildings focus on a factory and a pub from Wolverhampton. Significantly both the places were where Black and Asian communities went for work and leisure in the post war era. This gave us an opportunity to invite the Punjabi community to a place where they had no connection with and reason to visit in the past as the Museum largely highlighted the Victorian era. We are thankful to the Museum who helped with hospitality and a venue for the community to bring their images as early migrants from the above time period and share their stories of the early years of their migration. Special thanks goes to the Aman group who took oversight of the ladies ready for their tie with us.

Sharan Dhanda at BCLM explains the ‘Forging Ahead’ project taking place that recognised the work of Punjabis at the Lavender Factory which is been g rebuilt at the Museum. (BCVA project funded by Arts Council England) photograph © BCVA

Punjabi ladies proudly share their photographs from their family history in the Black Country at BCLM. (BCVA project funded by Arts Council England) photograph © BCVA

The Punjabi ladies group share incredible historical images from their early years of migration of mother and daughter in the Black Country this one taken in the early 1960s. (BCVA project funded by Arts Council England) photograph © BCVA

The group share their stories and images with each other individually for all to hear. Took a long time to get around! They were all wonderful! (BCVA project funded by Arts Council England) photograph © BCVA

'The Many Lives of Family Photographs' in partnership with Professor Gil Pasternak and Dudley College.

As part of our ACE funding we are proud to work in partnership again with the brilliant Professor Gil Pasternak from De Montfort University in Leicester and Dudley College Yr 2 students. BCVA is working with the photography students regarding family photographs, archive and collections with the Dudley College students. Vernacular photography is not a subject taught during the two years of the students course and with many looking to go and study further than the college this year, we initiated a project for the year 2 students to be able to work collectively gathering family images and taking portraits as well as recording their oral histories. The students received world class teaching by Professor Gil who is a an authority on the subject and in our opinion the best in the land. The work made by students will be printed as a book at the end of the project.

Professor Gil Pasternak start to teach about family Photography in accordance with BCVA’s work with Dudley College students. IMAGE ©BCVA (An Arts Council Funded project)

Students work in small groups and discuss the stories behind the images with their own family images following a when ,where , who what format for discovery on family history. IMAGE ©BCVA (An Arts Council Funded project)

Students feedback further into a second workshop with Gil Pasternak after work on recreating images for the present day based on their family images from the past. IMAGE ©BCVA (An Arts Council Funded project)

Early years colouring book on Punjabi migration using images from the Apna Heritage Archive

One of the major reasons we were able to collect images for the archive was because we wanted the focus of the first generation of migrants to the Black Country to be lauded and heralded amongst current generations of Punjabis for their tenacity, courage and sheer hard work in coming to the region. We have therefore commissioned artists to help us achieve this by creating the need for a colouring book amongst early years. We have commissioned the brilliant artist Suman Johal from ArtSikh and as you can see by the two examples on show how she is applying her skills to the desired effect! The colouring book will be a valuable and much needed educational tool which we are piloting amongst the first generation of Punjabis who arrived here int he 1960s as well as parents oand early years Punjabi for feedback. We aim to distribute the books strategically around the Black Country in order for our creative and heritage goals as a living archive in the community.

A couple of examples from the Apna Heritage Archive for a new educational colouring book for early years group about Punjabi Migration to the Black Country. ©Suman Johal and Black Country Visual arts. Made possible by Arts Council England

Photography & Culture Magazine : A Photographic Journey through History, Cultures and Digital Technology

The Apna Heritage Archive has been profiled internationally in a beautiful 17-page special feature as part of this Autumns Special Issue on ‘Photographic Digital Heritage on Cultural Conflicts’ in the internationally acclaimed research journal ‘Photography & Culture’ and has been guest edited by Professor Gil Pasternak from the Photography History Research Centre at De Montfort University in Leicester. The feature covers the context of the work of Punjabi Migration to the Black Country at a time of racial conflict in the region, the research and collection methods for the photographic archive and the impact and achievement of the facilitation of digital archive from personal environments into public spaces, coupled with their collation as socially and culturally potent historical sources. Here’s a little video of our feature in the journal. Special thanks to Professor Gil Pasternak who is become an encouraging supporter of the archive here in the UK!

A BCVA project achieved through Arts Council England funding

‘Our Commonwealth’ portraits commissioned by Living Memory and Sandwell Council for the Commonwealth Games

Anand Chhabra has been commissioned to take portraits of individuals and groups who have been nominated by their communities as champions of their own communities for the dedicated selfless service they provide to large sections of their communities. The artist created a series of stoic portraits that is a reflection of their humble service as untold stories of individuals who make a difference every day in their communities (up to now!). The artist. has met with some truly amazing and selfless people. The work will be shown at a number of venues around Sandwell designated by Geoff Broadway at the Living Memory project to celebrate these heroes of the community during from the month of June 2022.

Inset Karl Blick aka ‘Mr Smethwick’ who has done amazing work in schools around issues of bullying and mental health. Karl is an ardent member of a Rugby Club and used to walk past the Brasshouse Pump Rooms in Smethwick every time he played as child in a park nearby. © Anand Chhabra

Photographic Digital Heritage: 'Institutions, Communities and The Political' October 19th-20th Livestream conference

We have been asked to speak at another conference by Professor Gil Pasternak from De Montfort University in Leicester and in conjunction with the National Trust. The event will be live-streamed between 19th-20 October 2021. Our role will be to speak on Punjabi Migration to the Black Country : A Photogtaphic journey through History, Cultures and Digital Technology. You’ll find our Director speaking at 27mins:20secs into the video.

Bookings here:- https://tinyurl.com/53ueuext

More about the event below:-

Photographic Digital Heritage: Institutions, Communities and The Political intends to explore how uses of digital technology, and digitisation in particular, have transformed the ways in which historical photographs of value to perceived inherited cultural legacies are collected, deployed and identified as such. It will specifically investigate what has led formal heritage and memory institutions to drive this process, how heritage communities might have navigated their aspirations around it, and how political interest groups have taken advantage of it to promote their causes.

Photography and heritage became well-entangled long before the rise of digital technology. In fact, their connection has been highly influential, if not essential, to the development of heritage practices that one may by now take for granted. While some scholars have already considered the impact exerted by digitisation practices on approaches to photographic image-objects, much of this work tends to evaluate how the creation of digital photographic surrogates has undermined conventional archival documentation and preservation practices. In this regard, research around this area has largely taken issue with questions concerning provenance, cataloguing, dematerialisation, and media-morphosis, as a means to increase awareness of the potential loss of historical data that might result from the conversion of analogue photo collections into digital databases.

Bringing together photography and heritage scholars, policymakers, and community organisers, Photographic Digital Heritage: Institutions, Communities and The Political is designed to expand the discussion on the entanglement of photography and digital heritage into the political environment—where human diversity often gives rise to antagonistic sentiments. It is therefore geared towards unravelling how “the political” has conditioned digitisation practices, while equally looking into the ways in which photographic digital heritage has facilitated innovative hegemonic and anti-hegemonic aspirations in national and inter-national social settings.

Speakers will consider interrelated topics, including:

• the influence that photographic digitisation practices have exerted on definitions of heritage assets;

• the effect of photographic digitisation on institutional practices and policies;

• uses of photographic digital heritage for community building and activism;

• the employment of photographic digital heritage by governing powers;

• and the effect of photographic digital heritage on social and inter-generational communications about history, memory and the past.

Peckham 24 : ARCHIVAL SOLIDARITY: BUILDING AND (RE)ACTIVATING ARCHIVES Sunday 12 September 16:30 - 17:30

Peckham 24 is a not-for-profit festival established in 2016 by curator Vivienne Gamble and artist Jo Dennis. With a focus on new talent and experimental artists working with photography. The 2021 programme is created in response to the waves of protest and public demonstration that the world witnessed during the lockdowns of 2020. Exhibitions and live events programmed especially for the festival will give a voice to the urgent global issues of our time. It was great to be invited to a panel with Sunil Shah and Pablo Lerma. This panel brings together a range of perspectives to discuss the role that visual archives can play in building solidarity. Considering archive-making, alongside archival activations and public engagement, the panel spans a range of contexts, from contesting performativities of queerness, to collectively exploring personal and shared histories and identities, to collective memories and documents of Punjabi migration to the city of Wolverhampton. Venue: SUNSET STUDIOS, Studio ONE, Bussey Building

Instagram takeover for Apna Heritage Archive @ The Photographers Gallery - August 6th-9th 2021

The Photographers Gallery in London is the first ever public gallery in the UK as devoted solely to photography. It was a huge honour to be asked to takeover their instagram and focus our project Apna Heritage Archive to the massive number of followers they have. We cover the old story of trans national migration, memory, displacement and belonging through the 11 photos and stories behind the images. See and read more behind the untold stories of Punbjabi migration to Wolverhampton.

Historic England's Heritage Calling blog for South Asian History month

Its been great to be invited to write for the Heritage Calling blog as part of Historic England’s tie in with South Asian History month. We have managed to tie in our project with our other work Punjabi workers and Desi pubs on the blog. We wanted to shows the time of arrival and the opposition to mass migration as well as the integration of Punjabi’s and the relative harmony of the community in Wolverhampton today! Read more on the heritage calling blog here:- https://heritagecalling.com/2021/08/12/a-photographic-journey-of-punjabi-migration-to-the-black-country/

SUPNAA wins again with representation on SPECTRUMPHOTO blog

For the second year in a row Director Anand Chhabra’s work was selected for an award and this time by Spectrum Photo who were judging this years online portfolios at FORMAT’ 21. Last year he received a multimedia presentation from Daylight Books. From the good people at SpectrumPhoto he received a blog profile about his project & 20x24 prints. This is great news as Spectrum certainly know about printing and are UK’s No 1 printers for serious photographers and curators. Its great to keep getting stories and profiling as part of BCVA’s vision to tell stories of BIPOC communities from the Black Country to wider audiences! See the full blog here:_ https://tinyurl.com/yfvnfhyd

PSLV model from Supnaa : Dreams of our Fathers ©Anand Chhabra

Photo Histories Event with Redeye Photo Network 26th MAY 7.00p.m.-8.30p.m.

BCVA has been invited to speak at their event series on Photo Histories about underrepresented and untold histories from photos archives sourced from local communities. The Apna Heritage Archive will be presented by Anand Chhabra on 26th May online via RPN this month. More details on this free event and bookings :- https://tinyurl.com/42m2mt4y

Race, Art, Activism Seminar : Black & Asian Photography Archives

The speakers for our final seminar on this project are Tarla Patel and Vanley Burke. The event is funded by Heritage Lottery Fund and is chaired by Black Country Visual Arts director Jagdish Patel.  

Tarla Patel

Tarla is a visual artist based in Coventry, recently completing an MA in Contemporary Arts at Coventry University in 2019. Tarla’s work explores identity, memory and space through migration and storytelling. Patel is the legacy holder of her father’s photography by the Masterji Archive, which was part of the successful Coventry City of Culture launch. The photographs document migrants especially from the South Asian community in post war Coventry from the 1950s to year 2000. Published Masterji (2017). 

 Vanley Burke

 Vanley was born in Jamaica and arrived in Birmingham in 1965 aged 15. Here he began photographing the lives and experiences of the African Caribbean community. He is often described as the ‘Godfather of Black British Photography’, whereby his iconic images have captured the evolving cultural landscape, social change and stimulated debate in the United Kingdom over the past four decades. He draws strength from remaining a humble man of the community, whose personable character allows him to capture the intimate and private nature of people’s everyday lives.

Race, Art, Activism Seminar: The Polemics of a Punjabi Photographic Archive

In this talk Black Country Director Anand Chhabra presents on the Punjabi Community in the city of Wolverhampton which makes up some 40,000 people. Most of these people  migrated between 1960s-1980s. Largely focussing upon their formative years and their positive impact into the life of the City, the talk will be accompanied through the historical photographs documented by their work, business, social life, engaging with traditional & cultural life of the wider community. This talk covers the context of the post war period of migration, political opposition from local politicians in the Black Country inciting intolerance and in many cases violence. Anand will show the positive impact on Punjabi’s in the city that as one travels through the Wolverhampton there is large scale support for the migrant community through its Desi Pubs, Indian shops and local music. 

 The Race, Art, Activism project is a Heritage Lottery Funded project. 

SUPNAA : Dreams of our Fathers now showing in 3D FORMAT '21 March 12th - April 11th 2021

‘The show must go on’ to use a well worn cliche is certainly applicable to the FORMAT team this year while we are all in Lockdown. They have brilliantly put together a 3D exhibition with this years theme of ‘CONTROL’. There are 20 rooms of exhibitions from various photographers from around the world. Director and Artist at BCVA Anand Chhabra is showing the SUPNAA: ‘Dreams of our Fathers’ (ACE funded work ) in ROOM 18. Also showing is our ReFramed bursary recipients and workshop attendees in the same ROOM! Fantastic! This surely is an experience that in fact has opened more doors internationally to see work chosen for this years exhibtion. I feel privileged and thankful to my colleague Sebah Chaudhry who encouraged me to apply to the festival and also to Director of Format Louise Fedotov-Clements. Special thanks to Laura O’ Leary who helped co-curate the work! Its advisable to view the work via Google Chrome for best experience (IMO) Go here to see this years festival! https://format.newart.city Anand won another award this year from SPECTRUM (last year he received the Multimedia award from DaylightBooks in New York) but more about that later in May this year!

Opportunities for Black, Asian & other POC artists to work on High Streets commission & ReFramed network.

ReFramed (reframed.uk) have been assigned a role within a national partnership of photo organisations who have been commissioned by Historic England as part of their work to regenerate ailing high streets all over England. Picturing England’s High Street is a three year project which will deliver six photographer-in-residence programmes at six high street locations across England, as well as artist mentoring and a digital nationwide mass participation project. We are keen to support our partners that will ensure opportunities are available for POC photographers and successful applicants will have the opportunity to be mentored as part of the project by the ReFramed team. More about the opportunities and how to apply please here on Photoworks website:-

https://photoworks.org.uk/news/first-details-of-our-new-partnership-with-historic-england-revealed/

Piara Hayre (centre) with relatives one of early South Asian shopkeepers stands outside his shop in Wolverhampton c1961. Image courtesy of Black Country Visual Arts (© Apna Heritage Archive)

Article heralding the forthcoming FORMAT '21 photography FESTIVAL next week!

Great article on Instagram regarding the forthcoming 3D exhibit online at this years FORAMT ‘21. Its going to be great as FORMAt doesn't do things by halves and will be one to remember in the light of the present darkness with COVID-19. The opening image on the article roll on Instagram will be director’s Anand Chhabra’s image from the work he is exhibiting at FORMAT this year which has a them of CONTROL. There will be lots of activities and amazing international work to see from various photographers around the world! Find out more about Anand’s work in ROOM 18 online here:- https://formatfestival.com