Exhibition: Unseen Sandwell
Photographs from the Jubilee Arts Archive 1974-94
April 16th – 27th May, 10am to 4pm Monday to Friday at the Arts Café, Central Sixth New Square, West Bromwich.
In 1974, in West Bromwich, a group of young graduates founded Jubilee Theatre and Community Arts Company. Over the next 20 years they raised over 2 million pounds for local arts and community activity, working with 850 different groups, reaching over 200,000 people.
The remarkable documentation of their work consists of some 20,000 black & white negatives and several thousand slide transparencies. Today, these images provide a remarkable record of local people and places, a valuable historical document of political, cultural and social change. Artists from Laundry have been working with Sandwell Heritage and Archives Service to preserve and share this important archive. In the spirit of the original arts group they returned to the original locations in the borough, working with groups to explore and select the material, collecting oral histories, personal snapshots and memorabilia, which will be shared on a bespoke website launched during the exhibition.
Opening Evening 6pm-8pm Thursday April 16th, Arts Cafe
www.jubileeartsarchive.com
RELATED EVENTS
Jubilee Film Evening
7pm Tuesday April 28th, Central Library, West Bromwich
Film-maker Geoff Broadway will present his short film inspired by material from the archive, created in association with Tipton Local History Group, along with wonderful original super 8mm footage from play projects and festivals, film of the Patent Shaft Closure and a few surprises…
Creative Work with the Archives
2pm Wednesday 13th May, Arts Cafe, Central Sixth
Maureen Waldron, Archives Outreach Officer and artist Brendan Jackson from Laundry will talk about how the project was developed and realised with one of the founders of Jubilee, Steve Trow, looking at both its local and international significance; along with web designer Paul Lacey, who will present effective approaches to web construction and content delivery.
With special guest Kate Wheeler from the National Archives – who is the Collections Knowledge Manager for the Archiving the Arts programme.
The West Bromwich Archive Walk
2pm Friday 15th May
Brendan Jackson and Steve Trow will take you on a leisurely stroll, sharing curious stories using archive photographs as our guide. Duration of walk: 2 hours, starting at Central Library. (In association with West Bromwich Local History Society & Friends of Dartmouth Park)