We are grateful to National Portrait Gallery for hosting our director and artist Anand along with local Punjabi communities from Wolverhampton who attended a special day for the signing of photographic portraits by Anand. The portraits acquired by NPG and Wolverhampton Art Gallery are of significant Punjabi’s from Wolverhampton such as the Tarsem Singh Sandhu the man at the centre of the infamous turban ban dispute along with Kuli Kohli the first disabled asian woman poet laureate of Wolverhampton and also the former mayor of Wolverhampton Bishan Dass who was the first mayor in the UK. The portrait work created by Anand Chhabra resulted from a commission by the National Portrait Gallery on their Citizen UK Researcher Project. The commission focussed on looking at Punjabi Migration and through a great group of volunteers who worked as researchers found some amazing individuals in the city to collate their stories through oral history, collective archive photographs and take portraits. The work resulted in an exhibtion at Wolverhampton Art Gallery and was lauded and celebrated in the city. It was so good to celebrate with the community who made the effort to travel from Wolverhampton. Special thanks to the community of researchers as well as Carol Thompson Senior Curator from Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Producer on the Citizen UK work Alex Talbot and acquisitions officer Clare Freestone both from the NPG. The exhibtion and co-created work that was led by artist Anand Chhabra is detailed in previous posts on this blog.
Wolverhampton Citizen UK researcher celebrate with artist Anand Chhabra acquisition of portraits at the National Portrait Gallery/ May 2024. .