New exhibition opens at the BCA this week

Pinky, 2001. Photograph by Jennie Baptiste, part of Staying Power exhibition at BCA
Pinky, 2001. Photograph by Jennie Baptiste, part of Staying Power exhibition at BCA

Staying Power opens on Thursday 15 January and runs until Tuesday 30 June 2015 at Black Cultural Archives, Windrush Square. Admission is free for all.

The exhibition is the culmination of a seven year collaborative project between the BCA and the V&A to acquire a collection of photographs that increases the representation of black photographers and subjects within the V&A’s collection and to develop broader audiences for arts and heritage. The V&A will also present an exhibition of the same title drawn from the new collection of photographs from Monday 16 February – Sunday 24 May 2015.

Staying Power explores the work of a selection of photographers who were documenting black experience from mass migration following the arrival of the Windrush in 1948 to the late 1990s and features 14 photographers: Raphael Albert, Norman ‘Normski’ Anderson, Jenny Baptiste, Pogus Cesar, Armet Francis, Colin Jones, Dennis Morris, Charlie Phillips, Ingrid Pollard, Al Vandenberg and Gavin Watson. Alongside the photographs there will also be a collection of oral histories from a range of subjects including the photographers themselves, their relatives and the people depicted in the images.

Brixton Market by Armet Francis, part of Staying Power at the BCA
Brixton Market by Armet Francis, part of Staying Power exhibition at the BCA

The curator of Staying Power is Dr Kimberly F. Keith. Dr Kimberly has worked in museums for fifteen years, both in the UK and USA, and has developed educational programmes for at-risk youth and diverse audiences.

Speaking about the exhibition Dr Kimberly hopes it will not only make visitors think differently about black history, but about the future of our society too: “When we make the links between historical and contemporary issues we can begin to create strategies to combat discrimination and work towards social change. Black history is all our history and photographs of experiences in Black history are a powerful tool to promote dialogue in the community. I look forward to being part of the conversation.”

Want to know more? We’ll be chatting to Dr Kimberly F Keith later this week to find out more about how the photographers and photographs were selected for the exhibition later this week – watch this space!