Past, present and future: connecting communities with shared histories

The project will stimulate impact amongst new audiences and partners by staging active encounters with the Mendelsohn archive: 3,000 images taken when Mendelsohn was a student at CCCS in the 1960s, and interviews she conducted with her subjects. Undertaken in collaboration with project partners - Flatpack Film Festival, Ikon Gallery, Library of Birmingham (LoB), Ort Café and Some Cities - activities will consist of:

A 'pop up' outdoor exhibition in Balsall Heath, the Birmingham district where the Mendelsohn photographs were taken, run by Flatpack.
A local discussion event at Ort Café in Balsall Heath, and a symposium at the LoB.
Two photography workshops with hard-to-reach communities run by Some Cities, a local photography collective.
A major exhibition at Ikon, the most prominent art gallery in the region.

The project follows on from the original project in encouraging audiences to engage with the legacy of CCCS by thinking critically about society. It moves beyond it, however, by working in innovative ways with hard-to-reach communities in order to challenge stereotypes about the areas in which they live, engage communities in thinking critically about their own lives, and form a definition of culture inclusive of ordinary people's experiences.

First, the project will connect hard-to-reach communities with their shared histories via the Mendelsohn archive. Second, it will encourage communities to think critically about their own experiences and aspirations. Third, the project will enable communities to form visual representations of these experiences and aspirations via photography. Fourth, it will challenge stereotypes regarding life in inner-city areas and the meaning of 'culture'. And fifth, the project will develop the working practices of partner organisations, both in terms of their way of working with hard-to-reach audiences and their own understandings of culture.

The local discussion event and 'pop up' exhibition will engage Balsall Heath communities with the Mendelsohn archive and facilitate knowledge exchange between academics and communities. The exhibition will reach audiences who do not usually engage with impact activities while the photographic focus will help facilitate an engagement with those who do not speak English as a first language and can therefore be excluded from activities reliant on written material; an interpreter will be employed to facilitate communication as necessary. By engaging with their shared histories, communities will be encouraged to think critically about their own experiences and, through the photography workshops, form a visual record of their lives in Balsall Heath.

The Ikon exhibition and LoB symposium will challenge audiences more generally to modify preconceptions of 'culture' and life in inner-city areas. Ikon's reputation means the exhibition will reach audiences from across the country, while the LoB attracts 2,000,000 annual visitors. By putting Mendelsohn's photographs of Balsall Heath and those produced by current residents in these artistic and civic contexts, the project will challenge both negative stereotypes about inner-city areas and conservative understandings of culture that discount the experiences of ordinary people. The project will thus also develop the practices of partner organisations to include active engagement with communities such as those in Balsall Heath.

The project will be based at the Centre for Modern British Studies (MBS), University of Birmingham (UoB). Partly inspired by CCCS, MBS is committed to developing new forms of impact. In the context of anxieties over community cohesion, the project represents a timely intervention that celebrates diversity and stimulates dialogue about community aspirations. Its legacies will be ensured by the production of an exhibition catalogue as well as the deposition of the new archive of photographs alongside the Mendelsohn archive in the Cadbury Research Library, UoB.

The project will significantly develop the original project's core impact agenda. The Mendelsohn archive will enable the project to engage with hard-to-reach communities in Balsall Heath and at the same time, facilitate a broader discussion regarding the nature of inner-city spaces and 'culture' more generally. Like the work of the CCCS, the project will challenge both audiences and organisations to move beyond hierarchical definitions of culture and see people's everyday experiences as subjects worthy of serious attention. Expanding on this, the project will challenge both historic and contemporary preconceptions regarding inner-city spaces and stimulate a conversation about an inner-city community's aspirations for the future of their area. Impact thus goes far beyond communicating the significance of the CCCS to encompass an exploration of the past, present and future of Balsall Heath in particular and the concept of the inner city in general. This will be achieved through engagement with communities in Balsall Heath and the audiences of Flatpack Film Festival, Ikon Gallery, Library of Birmingham, Ort Café and Some Cities.

Residents in Balsall Heath will benefit from being able to engage for the first time with a previously unavailable archive of material that documents what life was like in their community half a century ago. More than this, however, the project will generate impact amongst the ethnically diverse residents of this district by encouraging them to play an active role, in thinking critically about both the Mendelsohn archive as well as their own experiences, histories and aspirations. Communities will be able to form a visual representation of these perspectives via the photography workshops and will create a contemporary record of life in the area that will co-exist alongside the Mendelsohn archive and be of interest to future generations.

Visitors to the Library of Birmingham, Ikon gallery and Flatpack Film Festival will benefit from engaging with a previously restricted and historically significant archive. Impact will be achieved through challenging audiences to change their perceptions, both of 'culture' and of life in districts such as Balsall Heath. Such areas continue to be the focus of negative attention, while representations of the lives and experiences of those who live there are only rarely presented as art. By foregrounding the experiences of ordinary residents who lived in Balsall Heath in the 1960s (via the Mendelsohn archive) alongside the experiences of those who live there today (via the work produced in the photography workshops) audiences will be challenged to move beyond negative stereotypes of such areas and come to a more inclusive understanding of culture.

The project's partner organisations will also benefit from their involvement in the project. Impact will be achieved not only through the engagement of organisations with a previously restricted body of work, but also through the development of best practice in working with hard-to-reach audiences through an active process of knowledge exchange. Ikon, Flatpack and the Library of Birmingham will be able to establish new relationships with the Balsall Heath community and at the same time, will be challenged to develop a more inclusive understanding of 'culture' to include the everyday experiences of those who live in such communities. Likewise, Ort Café will benefit from being able to use the Mendelsohn archive in its efforts to attract new audiences and raise the profile of the Balsall Heath community.