Anand Chhabra has been employed by the National Trust to work as a Community Engagement Consultant for Kedleston Hall’s Eastern Museum for their Year of Listening 2019-20 (YoL). There are many artefacts kept that relate to Derby’s significant minority groups and their heritage. Most items of significance for these communities were part of Lord Curzon’s collection and housed here as part of their Eastern Museum. As a result of the significant impact of Black Country Visual Art’s Apna Heritage Archive exhibition that brought in many Punjabi’s around the Midlands to see it and lauded by the local community, Anand was given the role to bring more BAME communities to not only see the collection in their locality but be instrumental in sharing their views to inform change for a new curation of the Eastern Museum that is due to take place in the next few years. One of things that Anand requested at the start of this new role was to create leaflets that allows for representation of the significant numbers BAME communities from Punjabi & Urdu people (15%) who live in the city of Derby and so fits in with the Trust’s ‘every one welcome’ launch in 2019..
Converting National Trust leaflets walks into Punjabi & Urdu for local population in Derby a first for National Trust 120 year history.
Anand arranged a series of weekly health walks groups from South Asian communities arrive at Kedleston Hall, Derby.
Staff at Kedleston Hall begin to share history about surrounding Lord Curzon the house and gardens during a health work organised by Anand Chhabra.
Staff share history about Kedleston Hall to another group arranged by Anand these communities have lived there lives in Derby but yet most never visited Kedleston Hall a few miles from where they live.
Sikh communities begin to identify there heritage through art work and objects in the Eastern Museum collection.
Groups fascinated and enjoyed looking at objects describing the detail of art & craft contained in the Eastern Museum work as ‘some of the best things ever made’.
Leaders from the local Islamic communities are fascinated and are able to read & translate the meaning of the calligraphy in their own language at their first ever visit with joy surprising staff and volunteers who up to now where clueless as to the writings meaning.