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Rose Sinclair MBE

Dorcas Stories: Narratives From the Front Room 

September-October 2023 at The Mail Box Birmingham 

This project was made possible with Heritage Lottery Funding 

An exhibition that searched for the narratives of craftsmanship and stories of making, using both personal and other archives to explore the aesthetics of textiles by Black British women which is still very much untold. 

The work seeks to understand the aesthetics of the experience of Black British textiles through the lens of the women of the Dorcas Clubs, textile networks that emerged through the Pentecostal church movement in 1950s Britain. By using  different types of archives the project invited the visitor to explore the aesthetics of the making of textiles by Black British women, not just making for themselves in their homes but following the model of Dorcas in the Bible and using their textiles skills outside the home and thus contributing  to a wider design and cultural aesthetic in Britain. Following the Windrush link through the reconstructed Windrush Cards as part of an earlier project https://www.gold.ac.uk/windrush/  gave us the ability to search for the ‘craftspeople of the Midlands’ and so discuss the crafting practices of makers and their journeys. 

This exhibition was co-curated with Birmingham based Craftspace, celebrating 75 years of Windrush by exploring Caribbean textiles, craft and fashion. Co-curated by Rose Sinclair MBE, it tells the story of Dorcas Clubs, through the lens of Black British women and features historic documents, fashion garments, domestic crafts, photographs by Vanley Burke, contemporary fashion, audio stories and films.  

The exhibition had six key themes:  

  • Who or What is Dorcas? 
  • Windrush Arrivals 
  • We are here to Stay – stories from the 1960’s to the 1980’s 
  • Windrush Futures 
  • Podcast – of makers 
  • Pannel Croft Stories  

Collaborators

  • Tihara Smith.
  • Denzil Patrick.
  • Norma Banton - Masterpiece Academy.
  • Sara Fowles, Yarning Stories.
  • PannelCroft home community - A banner created by the participants of the PannelCroft home community where they were contributing their stories of 
    community through the medium of textiles.
  • Vanley Burke - "The grandfather of Black British Photography".
  • George the Tailor.
  • Althea McNish.
  • Jamaican Fashion Guild.

QR code for the virtual Dorcas Stories exhibition.The photos above are from the original exhibition at the at The Mail Box Birmingham. You can take a virtual walkthrough of the exhibition on the Craftspace website.

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