History, Her Story,Their Story, Our Story and Barbers Street at the Museum of Gloucester

As reported in an earlier newsletter, Gloucestershire Archives co-produced this programme with Fresh Air Foundations.  It was generously funded by Arts Council England.

They led to an extraordinary and powerful event at the Guildhall during this year's Gloucester History Festival, where Gloucester artists Thembe Mvula and Rider Shafique shared new works inspired by Vanley Burke's photography; Elle Bry Thomas shared ‘Barber Street - One street, 14 barbershops, many nationalities’ and Pierre Nyongera shared ‘‘Old School’ a short film which looks at the history of Colwell School in Barton & Tredworth 

An artwork celebrating the project by Jusarra Navare was installed on Barton street for the duration of the History Festival, and then all artworks, films and stories and poetry inspired by the project by young people from Denmark Road High School Sir Thomas Riches and St Peter’s were exhibited at the Museum of Gloucester.

A strong outreach and education programme complemented the exhibition, with events including:

Legacies of Documentation- Taking positives from negatives - Representation and Storytelling in Photography

Schools Event - by young people for young people

“Enough of ‘we’ve come so far’ and ‘it’s much better now than it was then’. Performative activism won’t get us anywhere, enough of the white, white lies'

New material generated during this project will become part of the Gloucestershire Archives collections shortly and thus be accessible to current and future generations. 

For more information contact Jacqui Grange jacqui@cityvoices.org.uk