Projects
The Polish Connection
This project was initiated by REAP and Borderland Voices, and was developed through the support of Staffordshire Moorlands District Council. The Polish Connection presents the experiences of migration through the life stories of some of the Polish refugees who settled in Blackshaw Moor and Leek in the late 1940's. The work was developed to include extended family groups and includes contributions from second and third generation members.
The first phase of this project, September - December 2002, took the form of two sets of parallel workshops one with young people 13 - 19 year-olds and the other with senior members of the Polish communities in the area. These were reminiscence meetings with the senior members of the Polish community and creative digital arts workshops with the young people.
The work was facilitated by four artists, Sue Gaukroger and Sheena Barnes from Borderland Voices and David Ball and Cora Glasser from Glassball Art Projects. They worked in association with Staffordshire Youth Service who provided the venues and resources to facilitate the working sessions. Through the workshops, the beginnings of an intergenerational exchange took place; the memories and photographs collected from the senior members of the community were then been presented to the young people through a digital audio visual display. The young people were invited to present their views and to answer or ask questions in relation to immigration and asylum via a series of mobile phone text message exchanges. Many of the young people involved are the grandchildren of the original polish immigrants.
The next phase of the project saw the wider distribution of the material through the county library service in Stoke on Trent and Staffordshire. This project revealed key information about the dual economy of the region and the part which the Polish community played in the farming and mineral extraction industries.
This work acted as a catalyst for the Polish community in the Staffordshire Moorlands, with BBC Radio Stoke becoming host to a message board and oral history presentation on BBCi.
Click here to go to the BBC site
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