Brendan Jackson talks with Owen Kelly about the finale of the Jubilee Archives programme…
An association of artists
Brendan Jackson talks with Owen Kelly about the finale of the Jubilee Archives programme…
Artist, writer and performer, Jack Trow has been working with photographs from the Jubilee Arts Archive, searching for the exact locations depicted over forty years ago. As the first-born child of Jubilee co-founders, Kate Organ and Steve Trow, what started as a family pilgrimage soon grew into a wider cultural treasure hunt, revealing relics and ghosts of Sandwell’s cultural identity.
View his exploration of then and now online at: https://jubileeartsarchive.com/footsteps/
We’ve added some new digitised material, thanks to the Media Archive of Central England.
The following footage has now been added to the Jubilee site.
Sony reel-to-reel black black & white footage from Friar Park Festival, 1978.
Sony reel-to-reel black black & white footage from International Festival in Smethwick, organised with Home-School Links, 1979.
Sony reel-to-reel black black & white footage of Sandwell Tenants anti-damp campaign, 1980.
Sony reel-to-reel black & white footage of Anti-NF demonstration in April, 1979.
All this material is ‘as found’, glitches and all. To make it easy to locate all the film material on the site, you’ll find a useful pdf here with the complete list of links:
https://jubileeartsarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/FilmList.pdf
The background: some time ago, MACE took over the stewardship of the old Jubilee video, vhs, betamax materials from Sandwell Archives – some of which they have digitised. You’ll find a full list here:
https://www.macearchive.org/search?for=Jubilee+Arts&from=&to=
You will also find some other Black Country material if you search their site.
Ania Bas, who has been a key member of several Laundry projects over the years, has work on show at the Herbert Art Gallery as part of the Coventry Biennal 2023. The piece is called ‘The Cost of Living’ and consist of texts, painted on placards based on a short story written from four different individual perspectives. More about that here: https://www.coventrybiennial.com/artist/ania-bas/
Coventry Biennial is a social, political and critical platform for contemporary art which place across Coventry and Warwickshire between the 6th October 2023 until 14 January 2024.
Meanwhile, over in the Black Country, Richard Franks of We Can Create worked with a group of young carers earlier this year to explore the Jubilee Arts Archive 1974-94. In particular, they were interested in the protests and campaigns documented in the photographic archive. Their work was exhibited at Haden Hill House, Cradley through June to September.
Documentation of this work can be found here: https://jubileeartsarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/artistdocumentationRF.pdf
While the workshop programme has been completed, the exhibition of photographs from the Jubilee Arts Archive at Haden Hill House, Cradley Heath, has been extended until September.
Check with venue for opening times.
You can also see images on large scale vinyls displayed at both the Oak House, West Bromwich, and outside Smethwick Library.
The new digital library for the Jubilee Arts Archive was formally launched at Sandwell Archives on June 15th by the Mayor of Sandwell, Councillor Bill Gavan.
Explore the archive at www.jubileeartsarchive.com
From left: Web designer Paul Lacey, with Sandwell Archivist Georgia Bould, the Mayor and founding member of Jubilee Arts, Steve Trow.
More workshops
at Haden Hill House, Cradley Heath, where there will also be an exhibition of photographs from the Jubilee Arts Archive throughout June and July.
Production of the new digital library is supported by the Heritage Fund, and the artist workshop programme by the Arts Council.
Artists Hipkiss & Graney have been undertaking a short residency at the Oak House West Bromwich. Inspired both by images from the Jubilee Arts Archive and by the local environment, they have been creating a sculpture. This will be paraded around Oak Houses gardens Sunday 4th June between 11am and 2pm (opening hours) as a celebration of its meadowland and cultural significance in the area.
For Jubilee Arts, the Oak House was a key venue for arts activity with the community for throughout the 1980s.
We’ve set up and Instagram for the Jubilee Arts archive.
Please follow and share. We’ll be posting lots of fascinating images from this unique archive.
To celebrate the launch of a new digital library for Sandwell, in partnership with Sandwell Museums and Libraries, we are presenting a programme of workshops and events.
Here’s the first two workshops at Haden Hill House, Cradley Heath, where there will also be an exhibition of photographs from the Jubilee Arts Archive throughout June and July.
Production of the new digital library is supported by the Heritage Fund, and the artist workshop programme by the Arts Council.
Web Workshop at Bearwood Community Hub
with Paul Lacey, our resident web expert, who is also busy constructing a new back office for the Jubilee Arts Archive website.
Following up from web workshops at Sandwell Community History Archive Service, this workshop will look at:
Over the past few months we’ve been organising some open workshops with Sandwell Community History Archives to explore the Jubilee Arts Archive – these have included web training and skill sharing workshops, sessions with young people and adults in partnership with Richard Franks from Creative Blue & White and Sandwell Advocacy, some exploration of the archive collections (always popular) and children getting into the Hallowe’en mood at Smethwick Library enjoying some creative writing workshops inspired by Jubilee Horror Week of 1980. They came up with some pretty creepy tales to spook parents and friends, working from just two words: What if…
The project is supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Fund.
LOCAL HISTORY DAY! COME ON DOWN!
Saturday 29th October, 2022, 10 am – 2 pm
All Saints Church, All Saints Way,
West Bromwich, B71 1 RU
In association with West Bromwich Local History Society, we will be sharing some photographic materials from the Jubilee Arts Archive – in particular images from ‘The Golden Mile’ exhibition of 1984. Come and see how much the area has changed!
Friends of Dartmouth Park will also have a display, local historian Ian Bott will be on hand, Jenny porter will share archive photographs from Hallam, District and Heath Lane Hospitals, and rare items from the collection of Mike Fenton will be exhibited.
Sandwell Community History & Archives Service will also have material to browse through.
Miaaw.net is a fortnightly podcast featuring interviews, conversations and opinion an all things community, participatory and applied arts with four years of back episodes available to view.
A recent episode on September 23rd featured Beverley Harvey & Brendan Jackson, co-founders of the Jubilee Archive project, in conversation with Owen Kelly about the archive.
Find it here: https://miaaw.net/599/the-archives-at-jubilee/
Thanks to the support of Heritage Lottery fund, various people from Laundry will be working together with Sandwell Community History and Archives Service to create a new digital archive to add to the Jubilee Arts website over the next six months or so.
Rich Franks and Bev Harvey will be delivering engagement workshops with various groups, creating their responses to the original archive materials and developing exhibition materials.
Paul Lacey will be rebuilding the structure and engine of the web site and bringing up it to date, ensuing its longevity and legacy – it’s been online for some 8 years now – and Brendan Jackson will be taking up curatorial role on the site.
We will also be holding some open workshops in the coming autumn on web development for local groups and individuals interested in learning about web development, sharing some tips and skills. Keep watching this space…
Image: Circus week at Oval Road, Tipton, 1980