Its quite hard to quantify and evaluate exactly what the impact for the Apna heritage Archive exhibition at Wolverhampton Art Gallery has had on Punjabi's in the City . A community that is not known for engaging with the arts let alone walking in to the gallery to see it. The photos are just a few I personally accumulated by the visits I took to the gallery. When one of our volunteers turns up to temple in Wolverhampton and as a steward opens the door and one person after the other from all age ranges congratulates him for his fathers photographs being projected at the exhibition. Or when I walked in the first few days of the exhibition and saw a couple and after I was there an hour a gallery steward pointed out to them that I was involved in its creation, she immediately ran put to me and said there is a picture of my brother that I never know existed and yet he had passed away over 20 years and thanked me for preserving their heritage. Or others said it was akin to a religious experience looking at the large scale projections. It may never been known but indeed at least two things have happened as a result of this exhibition is that word of mouth has gone out to many Punjabis in the City meaning it was something to see. Also as an ethnic based organisation we have been given the opportunity to prove our competency in curating and putting this project together thanks to all our partners. - Anand Chhabra
