Series name | Craft |
Description | This is a portrait image of a participant at Sampad’s ‘Pipli’ crafts initiative. The project was held in collaboration with three local authorities, Sandwell, Birmingham and Staffordshire and assisted in developing craft skills of local South Asian women. Over fifty participants took part in the scheme. The project culminated in a touring exhibition, consisting of the thirty appliquéed and embroidered lanterns and hangings made by the participants. |
Date of Creation / Publication | 1996 |
Creator | Unknown |
Associated Person/ Organisation | Ray, Piali |
Location | |
Collection and Reference Number | Sampad Collection (GB 2661 SA) |
Catalogue Number | SA/CR/3 |
Copyright | The Creator and/ or the associated |
Access to originals | The originals belong to Sampad |
Series notes | Within the Crafts sector, Sampad's initiatives are carried out in partnership with Birmingham based Craftspace Touring. The main emphasis of the partnership is to work with diverse crafts people in education and community contexts. Together, Sampad and Craftspace Touring support new craft work, exhibitions and special events. |
Collection notes | Sampad was founded in 1990, under the directorship of Piali Ray OBE. The arts organisation was established to strengthen the infrastructure of South Asian arts in the West Midlands and Birmingham region. Due to Director Piali Ray's background as a dancer, this south Asian arts development agency has retained its strengths in dance, however its current remit is much wider, covering cross art forms of music, theatre, crafts and literature within education and community environments. Since its inception fourteen years ago, Sampad has grown into one of the UK's leading arts development agencies, instilling a deep and distinctive structure of South Asian arts in Birmingham and Britain through its productions, education and outreach activities, employing and advocating for South Asian Arts and artists. In establishing Sampad, Piali Ray wanted to ensure that South Asian arts in the Midlands became an integral and distinctive strand of the social fabric of contemporary Britain. Its primary endeavour was to maintain the growth of south Asian arts, to stimulate and enable new ideas and ventures and to recognise opportunities for capacity building, whereby south Asian arts professionals, programmers and managers can effectively apply their talents. Presently, Sampad has core funding from Birmingham City Council and from the Arts Council, and while its founding purpose was to strengthen the infrastructure for South Asian arts in the West Midlands, its influence and remit are currently much wider. The word 'Sampad', in Sanskrit means wealth, and the organisation translates this as cultural wealth to be shared as widely as possible. The Birmingham arts organisation has aimed to lead the way in promoting the appreciation and practice of arts originating from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Within these arts, Sampad engages in a multi-disciplinary approach. Its activities are a range of cross-art and cross-cultural initiatives and are rooted in the three main art forms: dance, music and theatre. However crafts, literature and storytelling have more recently played a strong role in the production of cross-art projects. Since 1990, Sampad?s programmes have fallen into three categories: performance arts programmes: which endeavour to develop, sustain and raise the profile of south Asian arts in the UK; education arts programmes: in which Sampad works with regional LEAs and artists in education agencies and develops programmes to reach young people outside formal education or those who have limited access to South Asian arts; and the capital development programme: involving efforts to raise financial resources for the organisations longevity. This has included an Arts Council grant of |