Humjoli Ladies Group visit Apna Heritage Achive

It was great to see the Humjoli Ladies Group visit the archive space at Guru Teg Bahadur Gurdwara in Blakenhall. They were really exited to see  prints of some of the archived material and the display of items collected from participants. This was a great opportunity to see some of their own photographs and some of the group had even brought along more photographs to archive for the project. The collection of prints started to bring back memories and stories from the 60's and 70's and early migration to Wolverhampton.

The ladies were great with the touchscreen computer!

New photos to archive.......

Talking about the good old days!

Bilston's Ek Onkar and Ekta Sangat ladies group participate in Apna Heritage Archive

It as been a pleasure working with new participants at Bilston Community Centre for the Apna Heritage Archive. The ladies have been digging out their old images for the archive, even storm Doris couldn't keep them away from their regular meeting last week. You can see above a group portrait we took after one of the yoga sessions. We look forward the meeting them soon and discovering more new archive material. 

Meeting with the Humjoli Ladies Group at Dunstall Hill Community Centre

Another great meeting and discussion with the ladies at Humjoli. It was great to catch up with one of our project partners to encourage further participation and to talk to new members about heritage, archiving and how to get involved. We look forward to the groups visit to our archive space in the coming weeks.

Darshan Kaur Jandhu at Humjoli 

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.

St Luke's visit to Wolverhampton City Archives

A group of 30 children visited Wolverhampton City Archives as part of BCVA's Apna Heritage Archive project. The children learned about the value of archives and the history of the Molineux Hotel building. Along with a visit to the strong rooms and taking photographs of the buildings architecture conservator Jon Everall and City Archivist Heidi McIntosh shared their knowledge with the children and staff. A big thank you to all the staff at Wolverhampton City Archives for an exciting and historical afternoon!

Pupils at St Luke's primary school learn the value of archives

BCVA once again teamed up with St Luke's C of E primary school in Blakenhall to talk about our new Apna Heritage Archive project. Over the course of 4 workshops they will learn about the value of archives and how to create their very own archive made up of portraits and information about themselves.  The children learned how to take a portrait through a practical game of 'human camera' and portrait session. Over the next few workshops we will visit the Wolverhampton City Archives to learn more about archival practice and take new portraits in national dress. A big thank you to all the staff and children for their hard work and enthusiasm for the project. Apna Heritage Archive is funded by Heritage Lottery Fund.

Apna Heritage Archive Instagram post leads to tweets by two Wolverhampton born writers!

A post on Twitter by Wolverhampton born journalist Sathnam Sanghera " Lovely new Instagram account aiming to collate some British Asian history" was followed by a re tweet by fellow Wolverhampton born comedian and writer Mera Syal " These old b/w snaps make everything look like a movie still. Cherish and share, photos on a phone just can't compete."

'Apna Heritage Archive' Black Country Visual Arts CIC wins Heritage Lottery Fund support

Black Country Visual Arts CIC has received £68,600 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for an exciting project, Apna Heritage Archive, in Wolverhampton. Led by Black Country Visual Arts and supported by a range of local partners and volunteers, the project will create an original photographic archive of Punjabi migration to the city from 1960 to 1989. The Apna Heritage archive will exist within Guru Teg Bahadur Gurdwara in Blakenhall with a digital copy available at the City Archives. The project will run for two years until early 2018.

Thanks to National Lottery players the project will engage Punjabi residents of Wolverhampton to learn about and discuss their heritage contributing their historic family photographs to the new archive. Seventy-five portraits will also be taken providing a present day record. Community volunteers will learn about the value of heritage and develop skills to create and maintain the visual archive. A creative learning and heritage project with St Luke’s Primary School will run alongside the project. Year 6 school children will learn and develop heritage research skills and create their own archive of the school and local Blakenhall community.

The BCVA project partnership includes: Guru Teg Bahadur Gurdwara, St Luke’s Primary School, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton City Archives and the University of Wolverhampton.