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
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.
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
Supnaa : Dreams of our Fathers shortlisted for Magnum Foundation prize & nominated for Prix Pictet 2019 (Arts Council England funded)
Supnaa : Dreams of our Fathers is a project of BCVA Director Anand Chhabra’s long term project on his parents migration to the Black Country. The project therefore connects to his parents generation of migrants who had hopes of a better life in another part of the Commonwealth. From 228 applications from 58 countries this project was shortlisted down to the final few by Magnum Foundation’s Photography in Collaboration : Migration & Religion prize. The project seek to communicate the truth of those formative years through portraits, ephemera and conceptual images when Punjabi’s arrived into the Black Country en masse in a very tumultuous time in the 1960s and relays there hopes, dreams as well as disappointments. The 60’s was a racially charged time with a generation that knew the horrors of partition back home and racial prejudice as sojourners abroad. This project seeks to look at the times nd seasons of their lives as a story that remains largely untold through fine art documentary photography. The project has also nominated for Prix Pictet in 2019.
Excerpts taken from Supnaa project showing the Dreams, hopes, faith and work life of early Punjabi migrants © Anand Chhabra
Apna Heritage Archive wins national award.
The Community Archives and Heritage Group (CAHG) held its annual conference at University College, London on 11 July 2017. Black Country Visual Arts cic won the ' The Best New Group' for the Apna Heritage Archive. The judges commented: “The Apna Heritage Archive run by Black Country Visual Arts (BCVA) is an outstanding example of collaboration capturing vitally important local heritage, in this case photographs and memorabilia on the migration of South Asian Punjabis to Wolverhampton from the 1960s to 1980s. The project has a strong educational element, including local schools (and the teaching of photography) and Wolverhampton University. We noted the involvement of a Gurdwara, the city council and others, as well as the supportive role of the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). It is great to see HLF becoming more involved in community archives, and we hope that this presages a more strategic approach to the sector.”
"BCVA are delighted to receive this recognition from colleagues in the archives and records sector. It is testament to the energy and commitment of everyone involved in the Apna Heritage Archive: members of the local community, our local partners and, of course, the support and help provided by the Heritage Lottery Fund."
The Community Archives and Heritage Group (CAHG) Awards are organised, judged and presented by the Community Archives and Heritage Group, a special interest section of the Archives and Records Association (UK & Ireland), the main professional body representing archivists, records managers and archive conservators in Britain and Ireland. For more on the ARA, see www.archives.org.uk
Black Country Visual Arts wins national award for ‘The Best New Archive Group’ 2017
Year 5 pupils looking at their own archive portraits!
Pupils at St Luke's talk about their own personal archive.
Year five pupils at St Luke's got to talk about their own personal archive bio and share their archive photograph with the school. There was a great deal of excitement as the pupils looked for their portraits as you can see in the image above. After reading out their own hand written information sheet they got to file away the information along with their photograph into the new St Luke's archive box. The children were really positive about the archive sessions and have enjoyed learning about our project and the importance of archive and heritage.
The children got to share their archive bio and photograph with classmates.
Year five pupils looking at old St Luke's school photographs
St Luke's primary school learn about archives
BCVA visited St Luke's primary school to talk about the Apna Heritage Archive. The year five pupils discovered their own archive of photographs and documents going back to the 1930's! The children also learned how to take a portrait and gather information about the subject in order to build their own archive.
Jon shows the children the strong rooms at Wolverhampton City Archives
A group of 60 children visited Wolverhampton City Archives as part of BCVA's Apna Heritage Archive project. The children learned about the value of archives, history of Blakenhall and St. Luke's School. Along with a visit to the strong rooms and taking photographs of the buildings architecture conservator Jon and Guy shared their knowledge with the children and staff. A big thank you to all the staff at Wolverhampton City Archives and St Luke's primary school.
The children discover the secret cupboard!
Apna Heritage Archive makes news in ARC magazine
BCVA's Apna Heritage Archive project makes it into the September issue of ARC magazine. ARC is a monthly magazine for members of the Archives and Records Association. It's really positive news that our project as been featured in a magazine read by people and organisations in the record keeping profession.
Anand talking to Tiranga visitors
Apna Heritage Archive at Tiranga 2016
BCVA attended Jaivant Patel Dance's Tiranga 2016 event at the heart of the community in Blakenhall Wolverhampton. It was a great opportunity to promote the Apna Heritage Archive to our target audience and participants. We had a positive response from the local community and met many new participants for the archive project.
BCVA would like to thank Jaivant Patel and all the staff at Tiranga 2016 for their support.
Desi Pubs makes it to Alchemy 2016 at the Southbank Center
in Desi Pubs
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.