Geoff Broadway

Our Commonwealth: The People of Sandwell 

Karl Blick, Smethwick. Photograph by Anand Chhabra 2021
Karl Blick, Smethwick. Photograph by Anand Chhabra 2021

A  partnership project between the Living Memory Project and Sandwell Advocacy to celebrate some of the extraordinary contributions made by ordinary people from across Sandwell to mark the staging of The Commonwealth Games 2022.

Over the last 12 months, we have been working with individuals from across Sandwell to feature in a life-story and photographic exhibition together with two new films and a series of creative workshops. Our first project celebration takes place on the 17th of June 2022 at the Dorothy Parkes Cente.

The project was created by inviting nominations of people that you think should be celebrated for who they are and what they do. We were especially inviting nominations for people who have a heritage link with countries across the globe, but no one is excluded. The project highlights the things ordinary people do for each other across Sandwell and who help make it the rich and vibrant place it is today.

The project is funded by Arts Council England and Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council.

What’s happening? 

  • Photographer Anand Chhabra worked with participants across Sandwell to produce a series of contemporary portraits
  • We worked with participants to record their life stories and how they see the world. These will be presented alongside the panels and on our website.
  • Filmmakers Joseph Potts and Lauren Hanchard produced two new films that explore themes of community, belonging and commonwealth 
  • Artists Ruth Turnball, Polar Bear, and Caitriona Dunnett led a series of creative workshops with community groups and local schools to explore aspects of photography, family history and personal artefacts.

Call for nominations ** Please note - as of 30th January 2022 nominations are now closed. Thank you for all your submissions**

We are looking for nominations for individuals who have contributed to making Sandwell the warm and supportive place it is today. Their contributions could be in the area of family, caring, education, sports, the voluntary sector, health, emergency and welfare services, or something else! 

Do you know someone who you think should be recognised for who they are and what they do? You can nominate yourself! 

What will happen

We are working with a group of community members to select the nominations who go forward to work with Anand and the project team. Please note that making a nomination does not mean that the person nominated will be automatically selected to be part of the project.  

Our selection criteria:

  • Creating a selection of participants that represent the diverse communities of Sandwell. 
  • Creating a selection of participants that reflect the diversity of personal stories.

Do you know anyone who should be celebrated for who they are and for what they do to help others?

Either fill in the very simple form below or if you prefer, email us here

 

Final Showcase Exhibition at the New Art Gallery Walsall

19/03/2022

Our new exhibition The Living Memory Project: The Black Country is now open at the fabulous New Art Gallery Walsall.
⁠
This final regional exhibition presents some of the many recorded life stories and family photographs, project films, commissioned artworks + much more. There is also the opportunity to purchase a copy of our limited-edition Living Memory Project book at a special price.
We hope to see you there!
⁠
Opening times are:⁠
Tuesday – Saturday 10am-5pm⁠
Sundays 12noon-4pm⁠
Closed Mondays and Bank Holidays⁠
⁠
No need to book, but check the Gallery's website https://thenewartgallerywalsall.org.uk/visit/ to see the procedures they have put in place to help keep us all safe. ⁠
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Documentation photos by: Mark Hinton

Smiths Drop Forge in Aston Birmingham in the 1970s

Janine Wiedel

This new piece by writer Josh Allen highlights the importance of Janine Wiedel’s new photography exhibition 'Vulcans Forge' now on show at The Hive in the Jewellery Quarter. The exhibition is a powerful and comprehensive showcase of her photographs that captured working people in some of the traditional industries in the Black Country, Staffordshire and Birmingham in the late 1970s. 

Alan, Stamper at Smiths Drop Forge, Aston Birmingham
Workers in the local pub in Aston Birmingham relaxing after a hard shift in the drop forge next door.

Between 1977 and 1979 documentary photographer Janine Wiedel received a grant from West Midlands Arts to spend time capturing everyday life in the region. She chose to document workers and workplaces engaged in the region’s traditional industries. The work was published as a book and displayed as an exhibition at The Photographer’s Gallery in London entitled Vulcan’s Forge. The exhibition also toured to the ATV Studios in Birmingham and the Museum and Art Gallery in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.  

Now, following recent partial exhibitions of the work at Blast! Festival in Sandwell and the Iron House in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter in 2019, the project in its entirety is being displayed in the region for the first time since the early 1980s. The work is being exhibited at The Hive in the Jewellery Quarter until 7th January 2022 (open 10:00-15:30, Tuesdays - Fridays).

One of Janine’s hopes for the exhibition is that it will lead those photographed as part of the project, their families, or others who know them; to get in touch with her. After nearly 45 years she is very keen to reconnect with those that she photographed. She tells me “I think that it is very important to give something back to those that we photograph, otherwise it seems like we are just taking from people”. This has always been an incredibly important part of her practice as a photographer. Whilst undertaking Vulcan’s Forge she says she returned to the workplaces where she photographed people to leave prints for them, however, she “has no idea whether they got them”, because she “just had to leave them with a manager”.

Female Chainmakers at Eliza Tinsley in The Black Country West Midlands UK
Chainmaking at Eliza Tinsley in the Black Country Birmingham in the 1970's

Today the industries Janine photographed in the late 1970s such as steelmaking in Bilston and Stoke-on-Trent, or deep level coal mining in North Staffordshire, no longer exist. Other crafts she documented like chain making in Cradley Heath, metal stamping in Aston and jewellery production in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter continue to be practised in those localities, but on a vastly reduced scale employing a fraction of the number of people.

Janine was always interested and curious to hear from those she photographed during the project, however, it was a few years ago when she began receiving e-mails from participants and their children and grandchildren, that she began seriously thinking about it. These participants and their families discovered the work online via Janine’s website where the photographs are listed.

She tells me that when the photographs were created in the 1970s, if the participants’ families saw them, their reaction could be one of alarm; at the often rundown, grimy and antiquated conditions they laboured in. On other occasions they would say to her, only half-jokingly, “I don’t suppose that you could also get one of him in a suit could you?”. She reflects that prior to digital photography, photography was something that most people reserved for very special occasions, not taking photographs of their everyday working lives.

Chainmaking at Griffin Woodhouse Lt Forgings and Chains in the Black Country Birmingham in the 1970's
Frank Vaughan, Jack of all Trades, Barziillai Hingley, Cradley Heath, The Black Country

This is also reflected in the Living Memory Project’s collection of photographs. Many of the participants in the Project shared photographs connected with their work, however, they are usually of work outings, events at social or sports clubs, or formally posed photographs of groups of colleagues. The day-to-day nitty-gritty of working life and the practice of the craft or other activities that workers undertook all day does not feature.

Time passing often grants what was once considered normal, even mundane, a fascinating patina of interest. Janine tells me that when children and grandchildren see pictures of their relatives at work they tend to marvel at the craft and the skill of their older relatives. Feeling a connection to the past and a sense of pride in their family’s historic crafts which they perhaps would not have grasped in quite so viscerally if they had not seen the photographs.

The power and ongoing resonance of the images has made itself known in other ways. A worker featured in the project alongside his father who was also employed by the same firm, got in touch with Janine to say that his father now has dementia, but that he still gets great enjoyment looking at her photos of his old workplace and former craft. The photographs possess the ability - despite the progress of the disease - to connect with a deep seated part of the man’s identity, bringing him comfort and enjoyment. 

 

Coalmining at Littleton Colliery, The West Midlands UK 1977
cutting the face Littleton Colliery Staffordshire. 1970's

Other people Janine has reconnected with so far, include a former Birmingham metal stamper who is now a busker. The stepson of a metal worker, photographed waiting outside the factory gates, who is now a novelist and creative writing lecturer. Plus the daughters of Aston based mechanic Wally Crooks, who featured extensively in a documentary ATV made in 1978 about Janine’s work in the West Midlands. Wally has now returned to the sunnier climes of Jamaica, however, through his daughters who encountered the body of work and reconnected with Janine after nearly 45 years the connection has been reignited.

Through these flashes of reconnection, and the rekindling of interpersonal connections, Janine is steadily reconnecting with those she photographed. Reforging ties originally created in the very different world of the industrial midlands in the 1970s, is revealing a fascinating social and cultural history of Britain over the last five decades, whilst also saying so much about people’s lives, family ties and identities. It is through these that the ongoing importance of these old crafts, trades and ways of making a living, live on.   

Josh Allen

You can go to Janine's website and view more photographs from the industries and also contact her direct if you discover yourself or family members.
Cafe Royal Books has published a limited edition box-set of her books.
Frank Spooner, Silversmith at Turner & Simpsons in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham

New film – The Living Memory Project

19/05/2021

We are delighted to share this lovely new film by Holly Wilkinson takes a look back at the Living Memory Project. The film asks participants and collection holders to share their experiences of participating on the project while taking a peek at some of our activities over the last 3 years.

Life Stories: Remembering Your Loved Ones

Click the link above to watch our new short reel about sharing your story

Life Stories and Bereavement

Recording and sharing the story of a loved one who has passed away is now proven to have a profound impact on helping us with the process of coming to terms with loss and grief. 

We are now offering the opportunity to work with us to create a special one-off publication of your story and a selection of photographs that is a fitting tribute for someone you need to remember and honour. The publication is yours to keep. 

You will be able to tell your story in your own unique way and have it embellished with up to 20 of your most important personal photographs. 

People who have worked with us report that the experience has been an important milestone on their journey of coming to terms with their loss and treasuring their loved ones in a very special way. 

Here is what some of our clients have said:

Screenshot 2022-01-19 at 11.56.52
Screenshot 2022-01-19 at 11.55.39
Screenshot 2022-01-19 at 11.54.45

Caring for Carers

We are currently working with the Caring for Carers initiative to support up to 20 carers who have lost loved ones to produce their own beautiful publication. The only criteria are that you live in the city of Birmingham and at some point in your life you cared for your loved one.

Caring for Carers provides significant support for people who are or have been carers, and services on offer include providing one-to-one support, helping them re-connect with their community. Most people will become a carer at some point in their lifetime even though they often don’t recognise themselves as being one. The caring responsibilities will in many cases take up a huge amount of time and energy and when the cared-for person dies, carers may become isolated and lonely. 

If you would like to find out more, please give the wonderful Caring for Carers team on Tel: 0121 8095 902 or email them at: Caringforcarers@communitiesinsync.info

Caring For Carers initiative is funded by Birmingham City Council and is developed by ‘Communities In Sync’, a Sandwell-based consortium of health and social care providers:

Sandwell Advocacy
Sandwell Crossroads
Sandwell African Caribbean Mental Health Foundation
West Bromwich African Caribbean Resource Centre
Ideal For All

From John's story
From John's story
Gez and Elaine's book
Gez and Elaine's book

New Film – Future Stirchley

07/03/2021

Our new film 'Future Stirchley' that was commissioned by Historic England is now live. In this short film, shop and business owners, residents and users are asked their thoughts on what Stirchley and the high street means to them and how they see its future. What it reflects is the deep connection this community feels to Stirchley, and to each other.

The film has been created by Geoff Broadway, Kate Jackson, Sirina Monique and spoken word artist Auden Allen.

'Future Stirchley' was commissioned as part of the series 'Future of the High Street', in which ten films created by contemporary filmmakers, in collaboration with young creatives, explore what the future of the high street could be. Future of the High Street' is part of the High Streets Heritage Action Zone Cultural Programme, led by Historic England in partnership with the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Arts Council England as part of the High Streets Heritage Action Zones initiative funded by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

 

C.H. Leng and Sons Stirchley High Street and Hazelwell Brush Works, taken in 1929. Photography courtesy of Britain from Above

 

 

 

Wards on Stirchley High Street, 2020. Photo by Kate Jackson

Stirchley high street. Photo: Kate Jackon

We really looking forward to taking part in this year’s Wolverhampton Literature Festival 2021 to talk about the making of our beautiful new Living Memory Project book based on stories from across the Black Country. 

Come along and join in as we discuss the project in more detail, taking a dive into the book and some of the moving stories and photographs it contains. We will also be joined by two project participants who will share their own experiences of being involved in the project and discuss the wider changes in popular photography and oral history. 

Tickets are free and can be booked here: 

Let’s Talk Film

05/02/2021

Our friends at Black Country Touring are hosting the Let’s Talk Film Festival - a series of free events where we can come together, watch films you may not have seen before, and talk to the creators.

The first one is next week (Wednesday 10th Feb at 3PM) and we are delighted that 4 of our commissioned films are being presented. Filmmakers Lauren Hatchard and Olvia James will also be live online to talk about their films and the filmmaking process, their love of story, and much else besides.

Come and join in to discover Black Country history on film: love, religion, belonging... and of course canals!

Reserve A Place: https://bit.ly/Local-History-Film

 

New exhibition at Newhampton Arts Centre, Wolverhampton

23/09/2020

We are delighted to present a new exhibition of images and stories shared by people from across the Black Country. This exhibition marks the penultimate event of the Living Memory Project that runs from 2017-2021

Newhampton Arts Centre
Dunkley Street, Wolverhampton WV14AN

From: Friday 18th September
To: Saturday 3rd October
11am till 4pm (Please note 3pm close on Sundays)

As part of this exhibition we are delighted to present a special showcase of photographs and stories from the Ned Williams’ archive. Ned has dedicated over 50 years of his life to telling fascinating stories of a region undergoing continual change. Through his 52 books (and counting) he celebrates the histories of our fairgrounds, cinemas, circuses, railways and towns, as well as everyday life stories from the countless people he has met along the way. Through this small selection of carefully selected photographs, In describing these image and the stories behind them, Ned offers us an insight into what continually motivates him to undertake his many projects and what he finds the Black Country so endearing.

The exhibition also features the premiere of The Unnamed City produced by the artist Harmeet Chagger-Khan. This 3D interactive installation emerges out of Harmeet’s residency at NAC during 2019/2020 and features the voices of participants from the local group Women of Wolverhampton. The work is a series of interactive audio stories about belonging and identity scattered amongst a 3D model of a city - a city that could be both nowhere and everywhere, where people live in harmony, a place that is equitable for all and has no sense of division or prejudice.

The wider exhibition offers a glimpse into the many rich life stories and treasured personal photographs that have been shared with the project over the last three years.

 

Final exhibition and event programme 2020

09/03/2020

As the Living Memory Project enters its last phase in the Black Country we are delighted to announce our final series of exhibitions, talks and events across Dudley, Sandwell, Wolverhampton and Walsall.

Thanks to funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Arts Council England and others, this two-year project spanned the region recording and sharing everyday life stories told through precious personal photography collections. Our team has worked with over 50 volunteers and project workers to host over 120 showcase events, pop-up exhibitions, talks, hands-on training sessions and creative workshops. Our final programme of exhibitions, events and talks reflect this hugely diverse and vibrant project:

Download the event and exhibition programme here 

We hope you will come and join us to help celebrate this fabulous project!

Capturing Chances

25/10/2019

Wednesbury Museum and Art Gallery

14th November, 12am-4pm.

Did you work for Chance Brothers in Smethwick, or know someone who did? Maybe you just love their glass and have some cherished pieces you would like to show? Or have photographs that captured life at the site?

If so, join artist Leanne O'Connor in a collecting and sharing day. The session is based around recording memories and stories and the opportunity for you to have your own studio-style portrait with your glass and related ephemera. The call-out is open to anyone and it would be particularly wonderful If we could hear from past chance workers and regional glass enthusiasts.

Capturing Chances is completely free!

This session is part of Leanne’s bursary artist commission as part of the Living Memory Project.

If you have any questions around this event, please contact Leanne via email lftoconnor@gmail.com or the Living Memory Project

You can find out more by emailing Leanne here

You can find out more about her work here

 

Call for Smethwick photographs from WW2

25/10/2019

Do you have any old family photographs taken in Smethwick and the surrounding area during World War II? We invite you to come along to our drop-in sessions with artist Andrew Jackson

Commissioned by The Living Memory Project, Andrew' is researching life in Smethwick during the Second World War and will make new work based on submitted photographs, life stories and a range of newly discovered archive material.

Every photograph tells a story - come along and tell yours.

Our drop-in sessions are between 12pm -4pm
Wednesday 13th and 20th November at:

CHAS
Smethwick Library
High Street
B66 1AA

 

Find out more about Andrew's project here" https://livingmemory.live/commission-story/jackson/

Photography Workshops at Caldmore Community Gardens

30/08/2019

 

Starting in September 2019 - A fabulous opportunity to work with the international photographer Farhad Berahman at Caldmore Community Gardens in Walsall.

We have created a programme of 8 workshops aimed at anyone who wants to improve their photography.
Whether you are a budding photographer or just starting out, whether you have your own camera or take pictures on your phone, this course is for you.

The course will cover some basic and provide more in-depth training on storytelling and shooting documentary photography project.

Workshops will take place on Saturdays at 11am at Caldmore Community Garden, 12 Carless Street, WS1 3RH. You have to attend all the sessions. Bring a camera or at least a mobile phone.

Dates :
14th Sep
28th Sep
12th Oct
26th Oct
9th Nov
23rd Nov
11th Jan
18th Jan

To find out more about Farhad Berahman: www.berahman.com

To book a free place, please contact Anna Webster on 07871813252 or e-mail: caldmoregarden@gmail.com.

These workshops are a part of the Living Memory Project is working across the Black Country to celebrate different aspects of everyday life that have been captured through people’s own photographs. The images hidden in our family albums, stored away in shoeboxes, and treasured in the collections of local enthusiasts can all offer rich perspectives on our rapidly changing society. They are recording local people’s life stories and memories connected to their photography collections, making a series of new films, professionally archiving over 1000 favourite photographs, creating a new touring exhibition and much more besides.

Art Workshops in Dudley led Melanie Tomlinson.

28/08/2019

Join our commissioned artist Mel Tomlinson for a series of 8 workshops at Gather CIC in Dudley in September, October, and November 2019. See the flyer below for more information.

Living Memory Arts Programme

We are delighted to announce the 12 artists and photographers who will be working with us over the next 9 months on the Living Memory Arts Programme. The 12 artists - 6 commissions and 6 bursary awards - will be working with partner venues across the Black Country to deliver participatory workshops, host talks, and develop a range of new projects. Their projects will be developed in response to key themes of the Living Memory Project and the outcomes will be presented as a series of exhibitions late 2019 and early 2020.

The Commissioned Artists 

Afghan children return home past the the remains of the Darul Aman royal Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday April 12, 2011.
Afghan children return home past the the remains of the Darul Aman royal Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday April 12, 2011.

Farhad Berahman is an Iranian photographer who has been living in the UK since 2013. His work sits between documentary photography, social practice and sculpture and makes art that engages people in his process as participants/collaborators in a way that becomes part of his journey.

Farhad will be working with Caldmore Community Gardens, Walsall.
http://berahman.com/

Hand #2, Kingston, Jamaica, 2017.
Hand #2, Kingston, Jamaica, 2017.

Andrew Jackson is an artist interested in exploring the challenges of selfhood, representation and narration. He is an award-winning recipient of the Autograph ABP /Light Work (AIR) International Photography Residency in Syracuse, New York and a graduate of the MA Documentary photography program at Newport in Wales.

Andrew will be working the Community and History Archive Service, (CHAS) Sandwell.

https://www.andrewjackson.photography/

From the series 'Ghost Horses and Guns', 2018
From the series 'Ghost Horses and Guns', 2018

Melanie Tomlinson is an artist whose practice involves creating visual narratives about marginalized spaces and communities, which are often neglected and found hidden between urban and rural places. She prints original illustrations onto metal, often combining these with other materials and found objects to create elaborate and often complex sculptures. Multi-layered, detailed and colourful, her pieces can be seen as urban three-dimensional illuminated manuscripts.

Melanie will be working with Gather Cafe and Community Hub and the local community around the High Street in Dudley's town centre.
http://www.melanietomlinson.co.uk/

Ceramic Sensations, Photographer - Janette Bushell
Ceramic Sensations, Photographer - Janette Bushell

Harmeet Chagger-Khan is an artist and filmmaker producing site-specific projects with a diverse range of individuals to harness their polymathic qualities and create subtle behaviour change within communities, organisations and cities. As a BOM (Birmingham Open Media) Fellow and Resident at Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol, she is currently exploring how technology, locative storytelling, immersive media, live art and theatre can create antidotes to life.

Harmeet will be working with Newhampton Arts Centre and the local communities of Whitmore Reens, Wolverhampton.

https://surfinglightbeams.com

From the series 'Punjabi Workers' : Tarsem Singh Sembhi , Wolverhampton c1992.
From the series 'Punjabi Workers' : Tarsem Singh Sembhi , Wolverhampton c1992.

Annand Chhabra is the director of Black Country Visual Arts and he initiated and worked on the award-winning photographic archive on Punjabi Migration to Wolverhampton 1960s-80s’ - ‘Apna Heritage Archive.’ 

Anand will be working with staff and students at Dudley College and Dudley Archives.
http://www.bcva.info/

The Living Memory Bursary Awards 

We have made 6 bursaries awards to early-career artists and photographers from across the Midlands. Awardees will be supported to develop their ideas and practice,  engage with a range of participants and local audiences, and participate in the mentoring programme. Awardees also have the opportunity to present any new work produced as part of the upcoming exhibitions.

Beera from Red Cow, Smethwick - part of Desi Pubs project
Beera from Red Cow, Smethwick - part of Desi Pubs project

Jagdish Patel comes from Tipton, and is a photographer and writer based at Primary in Nottingham. He is interested in how locality and historical narratives shape us, and also how they can used to think about the future.

www.jagdishpatel.org

‘Tombs Of Disco’, 2017, 4 Digital transfer prints on glass, framed in mild steel, elevated by satin draped platforms.
‘Tombs Of Disco’, 2017, 4 Digital transfer prints on glass, framed in mild steel, elevated by satin draped platforms.

Leanne O'Connor is an interdisciplinary artist and producer based in Birmingham, West Midlands. O'Connors practice engages with orphaned histories and how she can revive these through the production of sculpture, print and events that aim to revive these histories up and away from the dust.

https://www.lfoconnor.org/

From the series 'Durham Memories' 2019, vitreous enamel on steel.
From the series 'Durham Memories' 2019, vitreous enamel on steel.

Naomi Clarke is an artist, jeweller and enameller with a passion for social history. Working with archives and objects, interpreting the complex role that imbued and hidden narratives can hold within personal effects and public collections.

https://www.nwclarke.com/

 

From the series 'Adventurous Cooking'
From the series 'Adventurous Cooking'

Lucy Turner's practice stems around exploring the album and the archive with a fine art approach, in particular how these images can contribute to modern-day society. Performance of the album is a methodology used throughout her work to not only comment on family, but also societal change and social development.

https://www.lucyturnerphotography.com/

from the work 'Correspondence from my Mother'
from the work 'Correspondence from my Mother'

Caroline Molloy, Senior Lecturer at Coventry University, alongside of which she is a PhD research student at the Centre for Photographic History, Birkbeck University of London. The core themes in her work are around the politics of representation.

www.carolinemolloy.media

Turismo Valencia, 2016. Made on residency in Madrid with Grain Projects and IED Madrid.
Turismo Valencia, 2016. Made on residency in Madrid with Grain Projects and IED Madrid.

Anneka French is a writer and independent curator with a particular interest in place and dialogue exchange. She is Project Co-ordinator at New Art West Midlands, Editorial Manager at this is tomorrow, and writes and develops projects for a range of other platforms in the UK and internationally.

https://annekafrench.wordpress.com/

The Living Memory Arts Programme is directed by lead artist and project manager Geoff Broadway with additional critical and curatorial support by Nicola Shipley. The project coordinator is Richard Franks.

Tipton Exhibition 7th June – 29th June 2019

04/06/2019

The Living Memory Project - New Exhibition

Tipton Library, Owen Street. DY4 8QL 

7th June -  29th June 2019

We are delighted to announce our latest exhibition which celebrates life-stories and photographs recorded across Tipton during 2018 -2019.

The exhibition highlights include:

  • Photographs by Anand Chhabra working with Grace Community Church.
  • Stories and photographs shared by participants at the Tipton Muslim Community Centre.
  • The launch of our new film Blue Bricks to Blue Plaques made with pupils from Joseph Turner Primary School, Reel Access and Brendan Hawthorne.
Two images featured in the exhibition. June Fellows photographed by Anand Chhabra, 2019

Opening times: 

Monday:  9.30am - 6pm
Tuesday:  9.30am - 1pm
Wednesday:  9.30am - 5pm
Friday:  9.30am - 5pm
Saturday: 10am - 1pm

Tel: 0121 569 4949

We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded funding from Arts Council England to deliver an exciting new arts programme as part of the Living Memory project.

6 regional artists have now been commissioned and over the next 12 months they will be working with communities and venues across Walsall, Sandwell, Dudley and Wolverhampton to develop and exhibit new work. They will be leading a series of creative development sessions within each community setting and producing new work that responds to the rich themes of the Living Memory Project.  The 6 commissioned artists are:

Anand Chhabra
Harmeet Chagger-Khan
Andrew Jackson
Mel Tomlinson
Farhad Berahman
Brendan Jackson

The commissions are being hosted in partnership with the following community groups and organisations:

Gather CIC, Dudley
Dudley College
Newhampton Arts Centre, Wolverhampton
Caldmore Community Gardens, Walsall
Grace Mary / Lion Farm Big Local, Oldbury, Sandwell
The Community and History Archive Service, based in Smethwick, Sandwell

Bursary Artist Opportunity - call for submissions
We are also pleased to announce our open call for 5 bursary artist commissions of £1000 each. These are aimed at early-career artists to offer supported research and development time. You can read more about the opportunity here and download the bursary artist brief here.

The deadline to apply is June 3rd, 2019

We will be launching a new section of our website soon with more information about the Living Memory arts programme.

Bursary Artist / Photographer Commissions – Call for Submissions

14/05/2019

 

Bursary Artist / Photographer Commissions: 5 x commissions £1000 each.

As part of our Living Memory arts programme we are offering 5 bursary commissions aimed at early-career regional artists with a fee of £1000 each. The commissions will run concurrently from the of June 2019 until March 2020.

Bursary artists will be invited to work with 1 of the 6 named communities and have opportunities to engage with a range of participants and audiences.

This is a research and development opportunity but there are opportunities to present new work produced as part of the upcoming exhibitions. Work may also feature on the project’s website www.livingmemory.live and in the Living Memory Project book.

About the Living Memory Project
It is a National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England (+ others) funded-project led by Sandwell Advocacy in Tipton. The project's main aim is to record and celebrates life stories around personal photography collections made over the last 80 years from across the Black Country. We are working community partners and organisations to run workshops, host collecting and training sessions, and produce, exhibitions, films and much more. 

6 regional artists have now been commissioned as part of the Living Memory art programme and over the next 12 months they will be working across Walsall, Sandwell, Dudley and Wolverhampton. The artists will be engaging with local communities to research, develop, and present new work that responds to the key themes of the project. Each commission will culminate in a local exhibition and contribute to the final Living Memory exhibition in spring 2020.

The commissions are being hosted with the following community groups and regional organisations:

Gather CIC, Dudley

Dudley College

Newhampton Arts Centre, Wolverhampton

Caldmore Community Gardens, Walsall

Grace Mary / Lion Farm Big Local, Oldbury, Sandwell

Community and History Archive Service, based in Smethwick, Sandwell

Bursary Artist Benefits

  • Time and space to research new ideas and develop new work
  • The opportunity to create a new work for exhibition/ performance
  • Involvement in a regional art project with the potential for making new contacts and joining a new network
  • 2 x individual and 2 x group mentoring sessions
  • Promotion as part of a regional project

Key Living Memory Project Themes:

  • The role of everyday photography in creating/supporting the narratives of everyday life 
  • The importance of life stories connected to personal photography collections and how they can be used to explore, interpret and understand the social and economic changes of the last 80 years
  • Reflecting upon the changes in how we create, preserve, share and consume photography with the rise of social media/web technologies

Experience and Skills required:

  • Demonstrable interest in the themes of the Living Memory project
  • Interest in developing new work alongside diverse communities in a range of settings
  • knowledge of current arts practice
  • Ability to relate to communicate well with others

Availability

You should be available to attend the 2 x Living Memory artist sharing sessions. The first is scheduled for 25th June 2019.

Period of Commission: Late June 2019 - March 2020   

How to apply:

Please send an expression of interest of up 1000 words describing why you are interested in a bursary commission and outline what you would like to get out of it.

Please include a current CV

Please indicate a preference for the location (see list of venues listed above that you would like to work in.

Please send your submissions to:  geoff@livingmemory.live

Deadline to apply: 5pm June 11, 2019.

Looking Back – Walk 2

26/03/2019

Looking Back: Walk 2. A guided walk over Rowley Hills with Archive Photographs. 

Led by Jim Rippin and Mike Poulton and in partnership with the Friends of Rowley Hills

10.00am 13.00pm
Saturday, April 13, 2019

Join us for the second guided walk based on archive photos and stories from around the Rowley Hills. Jim and Mike’s carefully designed walk invites us to see the area in new and fascinating ways and reflect on the many changes that have taken place over the last 60 years. Come along and share your own views, photographs, and experiences of this iconic area.

Cost: £6 (all proceeds go to the Friends of Rowley Hills).

A special edition booklet will be available for an additional fee.

No need to book - assemble at the entrance to Bury Hill Park (adjacent to the Wolverhampton New Road and opposite Bury Hill Road) 9.45 am. See map below.

Please wear sturdy footwear and bring appropriate clothing for changeable spring weather. We are sorry but the route is not suitable for wheelchair users. The terrain is at times undulating and possible muddy in places.

For more information call 0121 559 4886.

Special Film Night at Tipton Library

Hop Pickers - a photo form the Derek Evan's Archive
A still from the 'Blue Bricks to Blue Plaques' film
Schoolboys Day Out in Tipton, from the Will King Collection

25/03/2019

We are delighted to announce a special evening of films including the Black Country premiere of Herefordshire Life Through A Lens: Stories from the Hop Yards

and 2 new short films commissioned by the Living Memory Project:

-  Blue Bricks to Blue Plaques

- The Will King Photo Collection

Presented in partnership with Sandwell Libraries and Cacher Media.

18th April 2019
Tipton Library, Owen St, Tipton.
Start at 6.30pm and finish at 9pm with time for refreshments.

Entrance £3.00 and tickets available from Tipton Library
Places can be reserved on 0121 569 4944 or on tipton_library@sandwell.gov.uk

Stories from the Hop Yards 2018 (90 mins)
Inspired by the rediscovered Derek Evans photographic collection this film from Catcher Media brims with archive photos and films alongside newly recorded interviews. In the glory days of hand-picking, thousands would go ‘hopping’ from the Black Country, South Wales and the Romany community arriving by train, cattle lorry or charabanc. Enjoy listening to stories of days past and present from pickers, farmers, hauliers and brewers.

Blue Bricks to Blue Plaques, 2019 (5mins)
A collaboration with pupils from Joseph Turner School, Tipton, poet Brendan Hawthorne, Blue and White Creative, and Reel Access. This short stylish film explores archive photographs and memories connected the Princes End Heritage Trail using poetry and performance.

The Will King Photo Collection 2019 (6 mins)
A short celebration of some of the amazing photographs taken by Will King through the words and memories of his daughter Ruth Collins. Will worked on canals from the age of 14 and during that time and created a unique photographic record of everyday life up until the 1960s.

Made possible thanks to funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

For more information call 0121 569 4944 or via email geoff@livingmemory.live

Ampersand Projects working in Old Warley, Oldbury

19th century map of Old Warley

14/02/2019

Ampersand Projects and Stephen Burke are working with Living Memory to deliver a micro project about local people’s life stories and memories connected to their photography collections in the Old Warley area of Oldbury/Smethwick.

Stephen has been busy conducting a series of oral histories recordings with a number of residents and scanning photographs from their personal archives. Stephen is also exploring the creating some new photographic work of the residents and landscape of the area.

The working title for the project 'The Glory Hills' which is a reference to a conversation with a resident who said the area was once known as The Glory Hills. More research needs to be done to confirm this but it paints a romantic idyllic vision of the areas past, which could be an interesting area to explore.

Stephen is working with Ampersand Projects to create a new exhibition and sharing event at Bleakhouse Library in April/May 2019. More details to follow.

Hill Top Road School c.1918, Photo used courtesy of Terry Beck

 

If you have any stories and photos you want to share from around Old Warley, or simply know more about this part of the project you can contact Stephen here or leave a message on 07850 176567.

Queens Jubilee 1977, Farm Rd, Langley. Photo courtesy Emma Moore.
Queen's Jubilee 1977, Farm Rd, Langley. Photo Courtesy Emma Moore
Queen's Jubilee 1977, Farm Rd, Langley. Photo courtesy Emma Moore

Real Life Stories at Wolverhampton Literature Festival 2019

Louise Palfreyman introduces the Real Life Stories session at Wolverhampton Literature Festival

10/02/2019

Louise Palfreyman from Arts Foundry has been working with us over the last few months developing the Real Life Stories project. She has been working with developing and established writers across the Black Country to produce creative writings in response to their own photography collections. She has been working with established writing groups including Oldbury and Blackheath and as well as individuals who have gotten in touch through our website.

Our first public event as part of the Real Life Stories project saw the showcase of newly developed work at this year’s Wolverhampton Literature Festival on 2 February 2019.
Eight participants performed their new work alongside projected images to a full house in the Wolverhampton Museum and Art Gallery.  

You can see photographs of the day below.

We have previewed two of the stories on our website including Bilston-Sur-Mer by Ros Woolner and Dad’s Car by Kuli Kohli to give you a taste of some of the work that is being produced.

Louise is now mid-way through the Real Life Stories project and we are planning another sharing public session in Wolverhampton in May 2019. We will also be publishing all the new stories on our website and feature some of them in the up-coming Living Memory book due to be published in December 2019.

Louise said about working on Real Life Stories —  "It's been a real pleasure meeting so many Black Country writers over the past couple of months, and there are some fantastic pieces of writing emerging. We have stories from all walks of life, and some of them made me laugh while others made me cry. There are stories of belonging, and not belonging; memories of family life and the working day; stories from the post-war era right through to modern times. Our writers span different generations, ethnicities and backgrounds to weave a truly diverse tapestry of tales."

If you would like to get involved with the Real Life Stories project you can either submit your own story online here, or get in touch with Louise directly and find out when the next workshop takes place.

Oral History and Photography Collections

We ran a very successful Oral History and Photography Collections training day at Dudley Archives in January 2019. Led by Richard Lewis of Dudley Archives and our project lead Geoff Broadway, it gave our project volunteers and 10 other interested participants an in-depth insight into various aspects of oral history.

Richard led the day with a detailed overview of what oral history is, explaining its core principles and some of the starting points for setting up a successful project. Geoff followed on with an audiovisual showcase of several diverse projects that have been developed around oral history including Storycorps in the US and The BBC’s Radio Ballads in the UK, as well as how it has been used in recent arts and heritage projects.

The day featured significant participant interaction through a series of guided exercises including developing key themes, questions and understanding active listening. We also covered aspects of recording technologies, making transcriptions, data protection and archiving.

The afternoon session focussed on oral history and photography collections which is one of the cornerstones of the Living Memory project. Geoff guided us through this complex session using his own experience of working on this project. The session touched on how to establish a frame for the conversation through a pre-recording process with the participant, how to keep track of the photographs that are discussed, creating transcripts with photographs, and finally how to work the with the participant to create summary stories for publication.

 

This was followed by a practical exercise that invited participants to conduct sessions with each other around their own photographs they had brought in for the day.

The final session of the day was a general sharing of how to establish your own oral history project and other general learning.  Participants shared some of their own planned and live projects, and Emma Case gave us a detailed overview of her project RED based on Liverpool Football Club supporters.

We want to say a bit thank you to all the participants who enthusiastically took part in the day and to Dudley Archives for co-delivering this alongside ourselves.

Dad’s Car by Kuli Kohli

21/12/2018

Our guest writer Louise Palfreyman has been scouring the Black Country for your true life tales... and we've had some brilliant entries. Here's our second one this week.
There's still time to submit your stories, and to give you a glimpse of what we're looking for we'd like to share Kuli Kohli's story 'Dad's Car'.
If you have a strong memory you think would make a nice piece for us, the entry details are at the end of Kuli's story...

Dad's Car
by Kuli Kohli

Deepi at Park Street South. Kuli Kohli

I am in my back garden where there are no flowers or shrubs. No trees or bushes, only sunny dandelions, nettles and grassy weeds growing through the cracks in the concrete.

In one corner, bits of timber and wavy steel sheets have been shaped into a tatty, tacky shed.  I am surrounded by honeycombed barbed wire and can see threads of my favourite brown frock caught where I tore it on the hems.

My Dad’s car, old and rusty, rests like a dead whale smashed to pieces on the shore. The door is ajar and I catch my finger on the rust as I try to climb inside. The blood from my finger stains the battered seat but I am too excited to notice it. I sit on the driver's seat, my feet dangling. I grab hold of the steering wheel and start twisting and turning it. I can't see where I am heading, I only see the dirty dashboard and switches with funny signs.

I smile and sing, pretending to drive, imitating my Dad. I don't know where I am going but my imagination takes me to amazing places...

Reality brakes, holts me to a standstill, when Mum calls, "Come out this instant! You'll hurt yourself!"

 

To submit your work to Real Life Stories, go to www.artsfoundry.org/real-life-stories
We have a public reading of submitted work at Wolverhampton Literature Festival on Saturday 2 February, and you are invited to take part! Send us your work to be in with a chance. Louise will also be leading a workshop in life writing.

Bilston-Sur-Mer by Ros Woolner

20/12/2018

Memories of Bilston
Our writer and editor Louise Palfreyman has been scouring the Black Country for your true life tales... and we've had some brilliant entries.
There's still time to submit your stories, and to give you a glimpse of what we're looking for we'd like to share Ros Woolner's story Bilston-Sur-Mer.
If you have a strong memory you think would make a nice piece for us, the entry details are at the end of Ros's story...
Bilston-Sur-Mer
by Ros Woolner

Mimi on the beach in Hickman Park, summer 2003 Ros Woolner

The first time my daughter went to the beach was in the summer of 2003. I have a picture of her as a toddler playing in the sand. There are colourful beach umbrellas and inflatable slides. There may well have been deckchairs. More unusually, in the background you can see grass and trees – because this was Hickman Park in Bilston, and the sand had been brought in by lorry from Southport.

That was just a few months after we moved to Wolverhampton from London, so I imagine we were still finding our way around. I’m sure we’d already found our local library, which was only a ten-minute walk from home, even with a toddler. We’d take the shortcut down the alleyway next to the Oxley Moor Hotel – a pub that has since closed and been turned into a One Stop supermarket. Sadly, Oxley Library is no longer there either, and the building, which the council promised to put to ‘better use’, has been boarded up since 2009. 

In 2003 though, we were regular visitors. My daughter would look at every single picture book in there before choosing the ten she was allowed to take out. A few favourites came home with us several times a year: Hamish the Highland Cow (who hated hairdressers) by Natalie Russell, I Love You, Blue Kangaroo! by Emma Chichester Clark and Cockatoos by Quentin Blake, which must have been renewed more times than any other book in the library. 

A few months after our outing to Bilston by the Sea, my daughter started going to a day nursery just behind the library. Sunflowers day nursery was run by a woman called June, although of course the local staff pronounced it ‘Jewun’. My own kids picked up the Wolverhampton accent at nursery, but not the hinged vowels. Years later, my daughter told me that her primary school teacher didn’t comment when children said ‘ballewun’ for ‘balloon’, or ‘soowun’ for ‘soon’, but he drew the line at ‘kewub’ for ‘cube’. The nursery staff also introduced me to ‘a luv’ (cuddle) and ‘a poorly’, and taught me that wet paper towels are a magic cure for everything from a grazed knee to a headache (as in ‘Have you got a poorly? Come here and give us a luv and I’ll get you a wet paper towel’). 

June/Jewun fell in love with the man who came to the nursery to deal with a rat problem. Soon afterwards, she left and followed him back to Scotland. Now, whenever I pass that nursery, I’m reminded of another favourite picture book: The Pied Piper of Hamelin.

Just as my daughter had her first seaside experience in Bilston, my son got his first taste of France at the Newhampton Arts Centre on Dunkley Street. This was where we saw The Man who Planted Trees – a show that transported us to Provence with lavender breezes (helped along by a fan) and a fine misting of rain from a spray bottle.

Our first real trip to France several years later was not to the lavender fields of Provence, but to Paris. Both children wanted to see the ‘Thinker’ statue in the Rodin Museum because their teacher (the one who drew the line at ‘kewub’) would say ‘Rodin’ to stop his class chattering and get them to strike a ‘Thinker’ pose instead. While there, we discovered that Paris, like Bilston, has its own beach: every summer, truckloads of sand are brought in to create ‘Paris-Plages’ along the Seine. 

It is in fact over 100 miles from Paris to the sea – about the same distance as it is from Bilston to Southport.

[Note: I only moved to Wolverhampton in 2003, so my Black Country memories are all fairly recent. I do have a photo of my daughter on the 'beach' in Bilston.]

To submit your work to Real Life Stories, go to www.artsfoundry.org/real-life-stories
We have a public reading of submitted work at Wolverhampton Literature Festival on Saturday 2 February, and you are invited to take part! Send us your work to be in with a chance. Louise will also be leading a workshop in life writing.

Oral History Training Day at Dudley Archives

Oral History and Photography Collections

An in-depth training day with Richard Lewis and Geoff Broadway at Dudley Archives

19th January 2019 10am - 3.30pm

We are delighted to announce a unique oral history training day co-led by Richard Lewis and Geoff Broadway.

The day will be a comprehensive introduction to the different kinds of oral history project and give you the tools you need to prepare and conduct your own recording session.

We will look at different kinds of technology that can be used and provide a range of tips to help you make the best out of your project. As part of the day will be running a newly-developed session aimed at how to record oral histories are based around specific photography collections. 

The day will cover:

  •  The foundations of oral history: what it is and why is it important. 
  • A brief look at different types of oral history projects.
  • How to prepare for an oral history recording.
  • What about technology?
  • How to conduct an oral history recording.
  • What to do after the recording: transcribing, archiving and using the material.
  • Points to consider when making a number of recordings and developing a larger oral history project.
  • Oral History and the Living Memory project -  oral history around collections

The training day is organised as part of the Living Memory project which is a Heritage Lottery Funded project exploring, archiving and celebrating life stories and personal photography collections across the Black Country. 

About the facilitators.

Richard Lewis is the Senior Archivist at Dudley Archives and has led and supporting a number of oral history projects both across the Black Country and further afield.

Geoff Broadway leads the Living Memory project and has over 20 years of experience of working with oral history as part of arts and heritage initiatives. He specialises in using oral history as part of audio-visual presentations and immersive installations.

Booking essential: Go to Eventbrite to reserve your place. 

Fee: £6 (all proceeds go to friends of Dudley Archives)

Location:
Dudley Archives
Tipton Rd,
Dudley DY1 4SQ

PLACES: 15 Places Available
Date: 19/01/2019
Time: 10.00 am - 3:30 pm

Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund

 

Looking Back – a guest post by Brendan Jackson

Guest writer Brendan Jackson reflects on our recent event 'Looking Back - a guided walk and talk over the Rowley Hills' led by Jim Rippin and Mike Poulton. 

If you thought the Rowley Rag was an old newspaper, perhaps of ill-repute, think again. Rowley Rag is the name of a volcanic dolerite stone excavated from the quarries of the Rowley Hills. We learn a great deal about this place today, tramping over hillsides that overlook the Black Country.

The hills are actually four promontories - Turner’s Hill, Bury Hill, Portway Hill and Darby’s Hill - now a large area of grassland in the area, part of which is designated as Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation as well as being a place of geological significance. In 1782, the stone here was chemically analysed a Dr William Withering of Birmingham (also a botanist, chemist, geologist and member of the Lunar Society). His results were passed on to the then President of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks, by one Joseph Priestley (a fellow member of the Lunar Society and the inventor of soda water, among many other things).

Turners Hill by Jim RIppin, late 1950s

Particpants on the guided walk and talk.

Apart from detailing his experiments, he wrote: ‘The limestone rocks at Dudley bed up against it, and the coal comes to the surface against the limestone. The highest part of the hills is near the village of Rowley. The summit has a craggy, broken appearance, and the fields on each side to a considerable distance are scattered over with large fragments of the rock, many of which are sunk in the ground.’ He went on to note: ‘Over the whole of this tract of the country it is used to mend the roads, and lately has been carried to Birmingham to pave the streets. Some people fell it in powder, as a substitute for emery in cutting and polishing. Its appearance is dark grey, with numerous minute shining crystals. When exposed to the weather gets an ochre colour on the outside; strikes fire with steel; cuts glass; melts, though not easily, under the blow-pipe.’

A view across Tividale, West Bromwich and beyond. From the Jim Rippin Collection. Late 1950s

Jim Rippin (R) Terry Danials (C) and Mike Poulton (L) comparing archive photographs of the changing landscape.

The viewpoints on the walk today are far-reaching, Turners Hill being the highest point in the West Midlands. The ridge itself divides the Black Country into two parts, separating the Severn and Trent river catchments, and offers a tremendous panorama. In the one direction we can see the Albion ground, the Post Office tower in the centre of Birmingham, Barr Beacon, the centre of Walsall, the edge of Cannock Chase and is that Lichfield we can glimpse?

The guided walk-and-talk is based around a series of photographs taken by Jim Rippin over the last seventy years. He has made a selection of images to share with the walkers, which reveal the landscape as it was then. He has lived in the area all his life and has fond memories of playing in these hills as a child, then a place of intense quarrying - and before that mining. In 1875, there were one 26 collieries in Rowley alone. We savour the names, sourced from old maps: Ramrod Colliery, Samson Colliery, Lyecross Colliery, Randall Colliery, Newbury Lane Colliery, Rounds Green Colliery, Churchbridge Colliery, Lifter Pit, Bottom Pressure Pit, Top Pressure Pit, Dingle Pit, Topend Pit. It was a ravaged landscape. Thomas Carlyle wrote of it in 1824: ’A frightful scene... a dense cloud of pestilential smoke hangs over it forever... and at night the whole region burns like a volcano spitting fire from a thousand tubes of brick. But oh the wretched thousands of mortals who grind out their destiny there!’ There are no pikemen, blacksmiths, cranemen, hewers or banksmen amongst us today - though there’s a chap who used to work at Accles & Pollocks who vividly recalls the toxins pumped into the water-filled marlholes hereabouts.

one of the massive marlholes left behind by quarrying in the Rowley Hills. From the Jim Rippin Collection.

Mike Poulton, our other guide, is also a knowledgeable local. He has dedicated many years to helping document, preserve and celebrate the flora and fauna of this landscape. While Jim offers a social commentary, sharing his reflections on how the landscape has changed, Mike explains the importance of this place as at habitat for numerous butterfly and insect species, as well as wildflowers. As we look at a patch of grassland where the Samson Quarry used to be, where Jim recalls being dangled over the edge by his older brothers, then Mike explains that this landfill is over fifty years old, yet no trees grow here. These old quarries were backfilled with waste, which included colliery spoil and blast furnace slag, and the surface of this one only has two types of grasses which, he says, you would usually expect to see in the first stage of vegetation, in the first 10 years or so - yet no shrubs or trees have taken root here. In the winter it’s marshy and some recall seeing pools of oily water with rainbows, which suggests that there is still something lingering in the soil underneath that inhibits growth.

Scrambling Bikes over the Rowley Hills in Winter. From the Jim Rippin Collection. 1954.

Pieter Brueghel the Younger: Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap. 1565

We end our two and a half hour walk at the site of the former Blue Rock quarries where Mike points out examples the igneous rocks with their vertical columnar jointing and ‘onion skinning’ which were formed as the molten mass cooled, contracted and cracked. He tells us this is the same type of rock that forms the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland. According to the geologists, these basalts and dolerites were extruded in a molten state into the strata of the Coal Measures and Etruria Marls late in the Carboniferous period. Slowly cooling, they then formed this hard crystalline rock called the Rowley Rag, which has shaped and reshaped the landscape over the centuries. (The Romans were believed to have first excavated here). Though I’ve walked these hills myself in the past, I’ve learned a lot today, and enjoyed seeing a tremendous selection of photographs. One in particular stays with me - a black and white photograph taken on a winter’s day in the 1950s, looking down towards the Wolverhampton Road, the curves of a slagheap obscuring the Portway junction. On the left, snow-covered roofs, away to the right a the dark outline of a blast foundry. Dotted around the landscape in the foreground are little figures on scrambling bikes, the whole recalling a much earlier classical composition, ‘Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap’ by Pieter Brueghel The Younger.

Film Commissions

Call for Submissions: 2 x Film Commissions

Living Memory is a Heritage Lottery Fund-supported project that is working across the Black Country to record and celebrate people's own photography collections and life stories. These collections and family albums contain a wealth of important photographs and life stories that we think should be recorded, preserved and shared as part of our cultural heritage. The project launched in January 2018 and finishes early 2020.

As part of the Living Memory project we are:

  • Recording 30 new oral histories with collection holders and photographers to provide first-hand meaning and context to these photographic collections. 
  • Creating over 100 public sharing and training events, workshops, and temporary exhibitions across the region 
  • Working with and training up to 60 project volunteers
  • Producing a Living Memory book 
  • Producing a comprehensive website www.livingmemory.live
  • Producing a DVD of the commissioned films
  • Producing a final Living Memory exhibition late 2019

Film Commissions

We are now looking to commission two films that will tell the story of the Living Memory project and works directly with some of the life stories and photography collections.
We are looking for an experienced creative/documentary filmmaker/s who have a demonstrable interest in heritage, life stories, and photography collections.
Ideally (but not essential) the commissioned filmmaker will have local knowledge of and/or a strong interest in the history and culture of the Black Country.
For an interesting perspective on the Black Country go here.

Film Commission 1

Aims:

  • To produce a visually rich documentary film that tells a comprehensive story of the Living Memory project: what the project is about and why it is important.
  • To be able to communicate this in an engaging, contemporary style and be accessible to diverse audiences.
  • To capture and illustrate the different aspects of the project through various means, e.g. film, interview, conversation, text, sound, images.
  • To feature people’s stories, the range of photographic collections, and the process of the project including an agreed number of events and workshops.
  • To provide a bank of media footage that can be used to form short standalone pieces for the website and on social media.
  • To provide a bank of material that may be used at some of the show back events scheduled over the next 16 months.
  • To provide a visual record capable of being used for project evaluation purposes.
  • To prepare the film for final screening, final exhibition and hard-copy publishing.

Timescales:

October  2018 - Dec 2019

Fee:

£3500 to include all travel, materials, and subsistence.  The commissioned filmmaker is responsible for their own NI and tax contributions.

Commission 2 

Aims:

  • To produce a film that engages directly with the participants and the range of recorded material including: individual photographs; family albums; private photography collections; the recorded oral histories; other related documents. 
  • To create a film (or series of ‘shorts’) that may use more creative approaches 
  • To provide moving image material that can be used to form short standalone pieces for the website and on social media. 
  • To provide moving image material that can be shown back at events scheduled over the next 16 months.
  • To provide a visual record capable of being used for project evaluation purposes.
  • To prepare the film for final screening, final exhibition and hard-copy publishing.

Fee:

£3500 to include all travel, materials and subsistence.  The commissioned filmmaker is responsible for their own NI and tax contributions.

Timescales:

October  2018 - Dec 2019

To Apply:

Please submit via email:

  • A cover letter detailing your interest in the commission/s and an outline of your skills and filmmaking experience.
  • A brief summary of how you would approach the commission/s.
  • An online link to your showreel or up to 3 specific examples of your work. Please remember to including any passwords.

Submission Deadline: 14th September 2018

Please send your submission to geoff@livingmemory.live

To download this call as a .pdf document please go here. 

From the Will King Collecton.

Living Memory at The Tipton Canal Festival 2018

We are looking forward to taking part in this year’s Tipton Canal Festival and sharing some of the rich photographs and life stories that we have gathered so far as part of the project. 

Bring along your own canal memories, stories, and photographs.

Do you have any canal-related photographs and stories from the Black Country that you would like to share?  We are having a Living Memory stall at this year's festival where we will be on hand to digitize photographs and record your stories.  We will also be showing examples of the many stories and photographs that have been submitted so far as part of the project. 

Our canals have made a significant contribution to shaping the identity and the landscape of the Black Country. We want to help celebrate the role they have played in the life of our communities through sharing everyday stories and photographs.  We know there are many important untold stories and unseen photographs about the canal in our communities that will be lost if we don't take the opportunity to capture and record them now.  

We look forward to saying hello and talking about canal photographs and life stories as part of Tipton Canal Festival.

School boys on cycling trip around Oldbury,early 1980s. From the Bob Mansell Collecton.
Canal Scene, 1975. From the Keith Hodgkins Collection.

Will King exhibition at Tipton Library

To coincide with this year’s festival we have created a temporary exhibition featuring a selection of iconic photographs from the Will King collection. Will spent his working life on the Black Country canals and during this time took Free event - talking about WIll Kings photographs

For more information on the exhibition and Ruth's talk please see our related blog post.

Canal scene at Darby End, Netherton. From the Ron Moss Collection.

Will King Exhibition at Tipton Library

22/08/2018

We are delighted to announce that our next temporary exhibition will be a selection of canal photographs from the Will King Collection and will be on show at Tipton Library between 15 - 29 September 2018. 

Over a period of 30 years Will King took over 2000 significant photographs that captured everyday life on the canals of the Black Country and beyond. Will spent much of his life working on the canal network working as a Lengthsman and then a Toll Clark for the BCN (Birmingham Canal Navigation). He died in 1962 leaving behind a trove of remarkable photographs that capture a time of great change as working boats were being faded out and the canals went into a temporary period of decline.

The Will King collection is now held by his daughter Ruth Collins who has been working with us to curate this first public exhibition of his work. Ruth will be joining us at Tipton Library on the 22nd September to talk about her father’s life and work. More information below. 

The exhibition coincides with the 2018 Tipton Canal Festival which runs over the weekend of 22nd and 23rd of September. We will also be having a stall at this year’s festival where we will be inviting people to bring in their own photographs and stories of life on and around the canals.

Free exhibition event: Ruth Collins in Conversation

11 am - 12.30pm
Saturday 22nd September
Tipton Library

Ruth Collins will be talking about her father’s life and work as well as sharing her own memories of growing up around the canal. As part of the talk, Ruth will be sharing some outstanding photographs from Will's collection for the first time in public. 

All welcome! 

The exhibition runs from the 15th - 29th September.

The Library opening times are:

Monday: 9.30am - 6pm
Tuesday: 9.30am - 1pm
Wednesday and Friday: 9.30am - 5pm
Thursday and Sunday: Closed
Saturday: 10am - 1pm

Looking Back: A guided walk over Rowley Hills with archive photographs.

21/08/2018

Led by Mike Poulton and Jim Rippin

10-30am 13.00pm, 15th September 2018.

Cost: £6 (all proceeds go to the Friends of Rowley Hills)

This specially designed guided walk-and-talk is based around a series of remarkable photographs taken by Jim Rippin over the last seventy years. The walk will invite us to see the area in new and fascinating ways, helping us to reflect on the many changes that have taken place within living memory.

Jim Rippin has lived in the area all his life and spent much of it exploring and documenting with his camera. Mike Poulton is also a native of the area and has dedicated much of his life to help document, preserve and celebrate the flora and fauna of this unique landscape.

Working together to lead this walk-and-talk they will be sharing their own rich insights and historical information about this much-loved landscape. We invite you to come along and share your own views, photographs, and experiences of this icon area.

Panarama of Oldbury taken from the Rowley Hills in the 1980s by Jim Rippin.

Length: 2 miles approx

Time: 2.5 hours, depending on the conversation and weather.

Please note the route is at times undulating and steep and is classified as moderate.
We are very sorry that the route is not suitable for wheelchair users and people with mobility issues.
We recommend you wear sturdy footwear or walking boots. The route may be slippy in wet weather.

The maximum number of participants is 15. We advise booking early as we expect the walk to sell-out quickly.

Assembly point and further details will be sent to booked participants.

 

To book onto the walk please go to our Eventbrite page here. 

Edale House, Tividale taken 1956 by Jim Rippin

Scramblers meeting on Rowley Hills, 1950s. Photo by Jim Rippin

Real Life Stories with Louise Palfreyman

21/08/2018

We are delighted to announce that Louise Palfreyman from the Arts Foundry will be working with us over the next six months to lead a special programme of writing workshops and events called Real Life Stories. 

We’re on the lookout for the best tales from the region… and we’re using personal photography collections as inspiration!

Real Life Stories will work with writers and writing groups across the Black Country to develop new works for publication – based on responses to everyday photographs.

Louise Palfreyman, Arts Foundry Editor, said: ‘Sometimes the best stories come from glimpses into real lives, and we feel a collection of Black Country tales would be a great read!’

Run by Living Memory and the Black Country Arts Foundry, anyone with an interest in writing can take part in the workshops and submit their work. We hope to collect new real-life stories inspired by your own photos or images from our extensive Living Memory project archive.

We’ll be touring local writers’ groups with images from the archive to inspire new creative responses and invite you to work around your own personal photographs. Writers can also send us existing real-life tales.
We can also provide technical advice and some assistance in scanning your own photographs ready for publication.

Stories will initially be published on the Living Memory website and at the Black Country Arts Foundry.

Details of particular workshops and timing will be announced over the coming weeks.

If you are interested in independently submitting to Real Life Stories, please send us your work using the form on the Arts Foundry website.  Stories should be between 1,500 and 3,000 words.

Louise Palfreyman is a published writer of fiction and non-fiction, and has worked extensively in the Black Country through a recent residency at the University of Wolverhampton. If you'd like to find out more you can email her here.

 

Howard Berry's family collection.

Louise Palfreyman (left) leading the 'In Perspective' Creative Writing Workshop at Haden Hill House Museum in June 2018

Living Memory Exhibition at Haden Hill House Museum

Our first Living Memory temporary exhibition took place in June 2018 at Haden Hill House Museum in Cradley Heath, Sandwell. We worked closely with the team from Sandwell Museum Services to make the most of our eight-day residency at this splendid Victorian-era house. 
We recorded just under 1,500 visitors to the exhibition over the eight-day period. 

The exhibition had four parts to it:


- A selection of personal photographs and stories shared during the first six months of the project from the across the local area
- Previously unseen photographs from the Ron Moss Collection
- 'Seven' by St Micheal's School in Rowley Regis
- Samples of work-in-progress by students at Sandwell College in West Bromwich

As part of our residency we also hosted two photo and story collection sessions, took part in the ‘Midsummer Music in the Park’ event, and hosted a creative writing workshop with Louise Palfreyman. To round off our time at the house we organised a special day of talks and presentations around different kinds of photography collections.

Haden Hill House Museum

Anand Chhabra speaking about the APNA Archive

The Oak Room at Haden Hill House Museum

From the comments book:

“A wonderful exhibition of ‘ordinary’ pictures by ‘ordinary’ people presented in a way that make it extraordinary”

“After seeing the exhibition I really appreciate the significance of photos to value the past and reignite the power of memories”

“I don’t normally respond emotionally to photographs in an exhibition but I found this ‘pop up’ show very moving. I liked knowing that were taken by, and have special meaning for, an ordinary person. This gives it a special way of working with the photos to connect with the subjects.”

A selection of 30 participants photographs and stories were presented on easels throughout the House Museum

Ron Moss: The Wedding of Margaret Gwilliams and Jake Watson at Laurel Road Methodist church in August 1967.

A view of some of the Ron Moss exhibtion in the Hall

Ron Moss
We were delighted to host a retrospective of the personal collection of Ron Moss from Old Hill. We showcased a selection of 24 photographs of his previously unseen private work made between 1950 and 1970. Working in collaboration with Ron and his daughter Cheryl, we chose photographs that demonstrate his developing eye as he informally captured his family and friends and their day- to-day lives. We also included a few later iconic images to pay homage to his love of the Black Country to which he has dedicated so much of his life.

You can see the images we presented at Haden Hill in The Collections section

Ron Moss as young man, photographed by his wife Sylvia. 1952

Stories and Photographs from local participants
Throughout the house we carefully presented some of the personal photographs and related stories that have been shared with us as part of our work in the area, particularly from Rowley Regis and the estates of Grace Mary and Lion Farm, and around Oakham. The stories and photographs were taken from recorded oral histories of participants speaking about their own collections in relation to their own lives.

Cheryl Aston (nee Moss) stands in front of a photograph of herself taken by her father Ron Moss in 1967

Hillary Kidd

Jacky Garbett

Sharon Offley

Sharon Offley

Gary Watton

Marianne Monro

Above: A sample selection of the image and story panels shown throughout the house.

Seven
The Student Voice at St Michael’s Senior School, Rowley Regis, worked with members of the local community to produce their own exhibition at Haden Hill House Museum.  They were supported by artists Richard Franks and Gemma Ince of Blue and White Creative and Kerry Whitehouse from St Michael’s School.

The project was an opportunity for participants to share key moments in their life narrative while finding rich and surprising common ground in each other’s understanding of family, relationships, successes and critical turning points. Some were celebratory, some poignant, some deeply personal, and some had a historical resonance.

Some of the students from St Michael's School, Rowley Regis, stand in front of Seven that they produced for the Living Memory exhbition.

In this context, the project allowed the group to explore the relationship that different generations have with photography, and also the way we capture, remember and recount an event or moment.

The group was then challenged to come up with just seven words to represent each person’s chosen image and its significance to their lives. Their creativity was expressed further by a workshop exploring typesetting and how we can use the arrangement of words to represent their meaning. Each person in the group chose, cut, stuck, copied and scaled their own text to develop their artwork.

Working with Birmigham-based Ropepress, the group took their artwork through this final process to create the final colourful versions of their work. This has given the final results a bright, playfulness and rich poignancy.

One of the pieces created for 'Seven' freshly printed at Ropepress in Birmingham

Students preparing files to print at Ropepress, Birmingham

One of the students preparing to make her final print at Ropepress, Birmingham

Sandwell College
Photography Students from Level 3 extended Btec at Sandwell College have each produced sets of photographs in response to The Living Memory Project. After initially discussing themes of the family album with tutors John Edwards, Richard Franklin and Helen Sweeting, they researched photographers who have also produced work on the topic. They were given an open project brief to create photographs in relation to either their own family albums from relatives, or photographs from the Living Memory Project website. Using the studio or on location, then processing their photographs using the darkroom, digital and a variety of post - production techniques, they have explored and developed their ideas to produce work in response to their original images.

A slection of work-in-progress made by students at Sandwell College

A student at Sandwell College shows off her project book featuring work made with her family collection as part of the Living Memory project

A student at Sandwell College shows off her project book featuring work made with her family collection as part of the Living Memory project

Midsummer Music in the Park
During the exhibition we hosted a stall and temporary display of collections in the house grounds. It was a chance to talk with a range of local people about the project and invite further participation. We met some fascination people including Mike Poulton who brought along an album of his father’s wartime experiences based on an oral history interview, and Nancy Cooper who was a land army girl from Old Hill. She wrote a book about her experiences called Down to Earth which you can find for sale here.

We were also delighted to welcome local history enthusiast and Living Memory volunteer Mike Fenton who crafted his own display of image from his own vast personal collection.

We were also assisted by project volunteers Jim Rippin, Juanita Williams and Cath Mansell who all shared some of their own collections as part of the event.

Former Land Army girl Nancy Cooper talks to Living Memory project vollunteer Jim Rippin at Midsummer Music in the Park event

Mike Poulton shows off the album he made about his father's experiences of WW11.

Mike Fenton presents his own personal archive of collected images as part of the Living Memory display

In Perspective- A day of talks about different kinds of photography collections.
We hosted a lively day of fascinating presentations and spirited discussion around different kinds of photography collections from across the Black Country.

Geoff Broadway, our Living Memory project lead, presented an overview of the project to date.  He spoke in detail about the value creating opportunities for the sharing stories and photographs from everyday life.

Keith Hodgkins spoke about a selection of photographs from his own extensive personal collection that span from the 1960s up to until the present day. You can see more about Keith Hodgkins and read his own story here on the website

Maureen Waldron from the Community and History Archive Service Sandwell gave us an fascinating outline of what kinds of photography collections that are kept in the archives. She also spoke about why the Living Memory project was helped to fill the significant gap in the local archives of photographic material taken of everyday life over the last 70 years.

Anand Chhabra presented The APNA Heritage Project which is an archive of photographs of the Punjabi community of Wolverhampton taken between 1960 and 1989.

Brendan Jackson presented story of The Jubilee Arts Archive that captures the work of Sandwell-based Jubilee Theatre and Community Arts Company between 1974 and 1994.

Anand Chhabra talks about the APNA Heritage Archive at the 'In Perspective' event

Brendan Jackson presenting the Jubliee Archive at the 'In Perspective' event

Members of the 'In Perspective' audience

In Perspective - creative writing workshop with Louise Palfryman
Louise led an exploratory session where participants were invited to respond and explore some of the images from the Living Memory growing archive. This intense and stimulating workshop explored different aspects of story telling around different kinds of personal photographs.

Louise Palfreyman (left) leading the 'In Perspective' Creative Writing Workshop at Haden Hill House Museum in June 2018

Credits.

Haden Hill House Museum in Residence:
Produced by Living Memory project and supported by Sandwell Museum Services

Seven:
Produced by:  Kiera Grigg, Ellie Vernum, Mia-Darcy Garcha, Lucy Clifford, Rosie Smith Chloe Gladwin, Holly Palmer, Linda Russell, David Russell, Jackie Garbett,  Don Whitehouse Jane Proud.
Supported by Kerry Whitehouse, Richard Franks and Gemma Ince.

Ron Moss exhibition:
Curated by Ron Moss, Cheryl Aston and the Living Memory team.
Printed by Sandwell College.
Many thanks to Ian Bayliss of Sandwell College for support and re-touching work.
All files digitised from negative and slide by Keith Hodgkins.

Participant's exhibition:
Prepared and designed by the Living Memory team, with support from
Rich Franks at Blue and White Creative.

Sandwell Museum Services:
Many thanks to:

Jane Hanney, Alison Hyatt and the team for enthusiastically supporting the Living Memory residency.
Mark Prestage for his great help with installation, exhibition upkeep and take-down.
Jack Whitehead for interpretation support.
Anne Willetts, general support.

Living Memory Project volunteers:
Mike Fenton
Juanita Williams
Cath Mansell
Jim Rippin
Keith Hodgkins

 

Project volunteers James Ribble and Juantia Williams at the Lion Farm Action Centre

Guest blog by volunteer Juanita Williams

16/05/2018

Juanita Williams shares her experience of working on the Living Memory project.

On Saturday 13th May I went along with fellow volunteer Jim Rippon to the Lion Farm Action Centre open day as part of the Living Memory project.

I lived on the Lion Farm estate when I was just 18 and I was surprised how much it has changed and yet much of it is still the same.  The row of shops are still there next to the library and the pub on the corner has had a refurb, but it’s still there serving the community.

We were there to help celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Lion Farm Action Centre whose team works hard to support the local community. As part of the event we shared stories and images collected as part of the project from Lion Farm and Grace Mary area over the last few months.

We also had a pop-up exhibition of specially printed photos that we presented around the centre. Everyone was really keen to talk to us about the images and the photographs that we presented as a slide-show the screen. 

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The Lion Farm Action Centre have been in their new building since September last year and it was really friendly and welcoming atmosphere.  There was a slow but steady stream of people passing through, many of them spending time in the sunny garden. 

Going out into the community as a volunteer for the project made me realise just how interested people are in old photographs and the stories behind them.  Most people comment when they see something they recognise from their own life experiences and this is why this project is so important. I love listening to people's stories. and feel it's so important to create the space for others to share their memories. One photograph can trigger thoughts about a time that we had forgotten, recalling people, places and feelings. 

At the event I met so many different people and talking about their lives and their own photographs it's clear to me that although we all have our differences we always have so many things in common. Talking about our own photographs and those of other people can helps us talk about our lives and share what really matters to us.

Part of our temporary exhibition at the LFAC

Part of our temporary exhibition at the LFAC

Sharon Ofley with a photo of her father and his friends from 1968

Sharon Ofley with a photo of her father and his friends from 1968

James Ribble shared some of his own family photographs. We are doing a feature all about his collection over the next few months.

If you want to get involved in any way with this project you can come along and do as little or as much as you are able.  You don’t have to have advanced technical skills to volunteer, just coming along to our events and helping people share their own stories and photographs is a really important part of the project.  Do get in touch if you would like to help on the project.

‘Growing Memories’ with Boundary Way Allotments and Community Garden

26/04/2018

Howard Berry and Holly Pleydell with the Living Memory pop up exhibition.

‘Growing Memories’ with Boundary Way Allotments and Community Garden

On Sunday we teamed up with Boundary Way Allotments and Community Garden to participate in a day of sharing and creative activities around the theme of ‘Growing Memories’. 

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The Boundary Way garden and allotments sit on edge of the Warstones estate in south-west Wolverhampton and has beautiful views across the rolling Staffordshire countryside and towards the hills of Shropshire. It’s a unique site where community members, plot-holders, artists and many others often come together to share in activities and spend time together.

The Boundary Way Allotment and Community Garden, with the Camera Obscura in the foreground (blue shed).

Geoff Broadway talking about the Living Memory project.

Moya Lloyd talking about the Boundary Way project

The day was part of their ‘Sharing Nature Open day’ to mark International Earth day and to share our investigations into the history and heritage of our site, supported with funding from HLF.

We took the opportunity to present our first Living Memory ‘pop up’ exhibition at the Growing Memories event, making use of the fabulous multi-purpose poly tunnel. We spoke about the project and shared some of the many 100’s of images we have gathered, telling some of the rich stories behind them. 

Howard Berry's family collection.

Moya Lloyd and Clare Wasserman look through a photography collection lent to the Living Memory project.

Wherever we go we find people who are fascinated by the project, and there is always someone who wants to share their own photographs and stories.  Several people had brought along their photographs to share and we spend time recording their stories and scanning their images.

James Williams building a strong room for the Shah of Iran at the Chubb Lockworks

Plot holder Howard Berry talks about his own family collection.

Maria Billington's mum Katherine and her uncle Stephen in the garden taken in the late 1940s.

Clare Wassermann has some wonderful photos of her grandfather James Williams - you can read about him in our snapshot section. Maria Billington also shared a series of her own key images from her life and the journey she made from growing up in Manchester to living and thriving in Wolverhampton where she runs the Gatis Community Space. We will be publishing her story soon on the website.  Howard Berry also brought in his own family collection and will be working with him very soon on his fascinating story. 

Many thanks to Boundary Way for inviting us to come along as part of the Growing Memories Day.

Want to join us and help us talk about the project and gather people stories? We still have a range of volunteering opportunities open on the Living Memory project.

Richard, one of the plot-holders at Boundary Way. (photo Geoff Broadway)

Where to start? And then what?

25/04/2018

Where to start? And then what?

How to tell the story of a photograph collection? Where to start?

A guest post by Mandy Ross

As a writer, I love meeting people with stories to tell (which I do believe includes just about everyone). So it was a treat to meet a bunch of keen and thoughtful people and their photo collections at a Living Memory writing workshop at Tipton Library in April. 
And what a treat to share some of the stories in their photos. We glimpsed family history touching on world events, pupils invited to sing at their teacher's wedding, and photobooth fun in Smethwick, immortalising a diverse group of young friends.

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Moya Lloyd's family slide collection

Part of Vee's friendship album.

A selection negatives ready for scanning

So how to start writing the stories?
Each person picked a single photograph from their collection, and started writing the story it showed - including some of the sounds, secrets and unseen mysteries the photo might hint at.

Then we set off on a bit of time-travel. Choosing an earlier photo in the collection, we stepped back in time, writing a flashback. What was different back then? How had things unfolded? What changed in between?

And then we stepped back into the future, choosing a photo from a much later date, and zipping through time to see - and write - how the story had moved on.
Would this approach work for your collection? We look forward to reading and sharing the stories that emerge.

The session ended with another batch of questions to think about:
Why do we collect photos? How do we choose what to keep?

What does the collection tell us about the collector?
And how is technology changing the process?

Answers welcome!
Mandy Ross
http://www.mandyross.co.uk/

Seven Little Words at St Michaels CE High School

18/04/2018

Blue and White Creative are currently working with St Michaels CE High School in Rowley Regis. The Student Voice Group and members of the local community and the LINKS project are working together create a series of unique artworks inspired by seven photos selected from their family albums.

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Each participant was asked to bring in seven photographs that are important to them in some way. They then shared the stories behind each image through intergenerational conversations. The group then developed one story and one photograph each to base their final artwork on.

Developing the theme of ‘seven’ further, participants are now in the process of creating bold typographical collages that tell their story in just 'seven little words'. These will then be juxtaposed with their photograph.

In the next few weeks the group will be discovering the relationship between photography and the written word. They will explore how using both together can add meaning and impact to a story – to become poignant, intriguing or just funny.

It is hoped that the culmination of all this hard work will be presented at the upcoming Living Memory exhibition at Haden Hill House in Cradley Heath.

Talk at West Bromwich Library 24th April 2018

Please join us for a free illustrated talk by about the Living Memory project.

10.30am, Tuesday 24th April 2018

Central Library
316 High Street West Bromwich, B70 8DZ 0121 569 4904

Everyone Welcome!

Do you have any photographs and memories from your life in the Black Country that you want to share and talk about? Please bring them along as there will be an opportunity to share them after the talk.

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