By Shelagh Heetreed
Pictures copyright of Shelagh Hetreed
Living Legacies is photographic exhibition that was held at Mshed in July 2013, as part of the Celebrating Age Festival, which brought numerous BAME elders into M Shed to offer workshops in flower arranging, to sing as part of Golden Oldies and to see the exhibition.
This portrait exhibition, curated by LinkAge in collaboration with photographer Luke Mitchell, celebrates the lives and cultures of twenty four first generation BME migrants who settled in Bristol 50 years prior from the Caribbean, South Asia and China. Shelagh Heetreed (then working at LinkAge), whose role within LinkAge was to support these groups towards long term sustainability, came up with the concept of creating a visual celebration of the amazing people with whom she works. Shelagh worked with Luke Mitchell to put together an exhibition they spent a couple of weeks going around the elders groups and a couple of homes to meet the elders and take the photographs, including . The photos were of members of: Malcolm X elders, The Chinese Womens Association, Dhek Bhal and The Golden Agers. One of the elders pictured was Princess Campbell.
The exhibition was then displayed in the foyer of City Hall as part of Black History Month in October 2013. On 25th October 2013, George Ferguson, then Mayor of Bristol and Councillor Faruk Choudhury, then Lord Mayor of Bristol, opened the exhibition. The exhibition then went on display at Malcolm X Centre. The photos are now housed at Nilaari, in Easton.
The exhibition was featured in Voscur’s magazine in October 2013
More information about the Living Legacy Exhibition available from the photographer website.