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Celebrating the Heritage of UK Carnival Culture
Help us preserve and share the wonderful world of carnival with the first digital Carnival Archive in the UK.
The Carnival Archive Project, funded by Heritage Lottery Fund, is all about collecting, capturing, preserving and sharing the heritage of carnival and street celebrations in the Eastern region.
Carnivals and street processions bring everyone together to celebrate and enjoy all that is creative and fun in our communities. Beyond the spectacular performances, magical costumes and music, there’s a deep-rooted history and culture that has transformed our communities over the years. Carnival means different things to different people. This Archive project offers everyone a chance to share photos, drawings, film, music, and stories about carnival.
Working with local partner organisations, Norwich and Norfolk Community Arts, Southend Carnival Association, Northamptonshire Black History Association and Northampton Carnival Arts Consortium; and national partners the V&A and Black Cultural Archives, avenues will be opened up to collect local carnival archives and to catalogue, preserve, digitise and interpret them for new audiences.
The project is coordinated by a central team, based at UKCCA, and by Carnival Archive Coordinators, Community and Outreach Officers and volunteers based in the local towns. The local partners and UKCCA will work with local schools to broaden knowledge of carnival heritage as a tool for intercultural understanding and promotion of citizenship, based around archival material. There will also be exhibitions of material produced locally showcased at local Carnival events.
The project aims
- to develop skills and understanding of local carnival artists and communities' in the value of historic and contemporary archives
- to enable local communities to collect archives and record digitally
- to develop an archive that can be inputted into and accessed by everyone
- to produce exciting and inspiring materials about carnival for schools and community groups
- to create a methodology for carnival archive that can be used across the UK and beyond
Carnival offers an unrivalled wealth of possibilities for participation, learning, enjoyment, and both personal and community growth and development. The UKCCA exists to provide education, enterprise, advocacy, training, and outreach activities that promote the value, reach and powerful impact of Carnivals and Carnival Arts regionally and to document the history of the growth of Carnival and Carnival Arts in the UK.
UKCCA has the ambition to build a national archive that celebrates and gives testimony to the huge historical contributions that have given the UK its diverse and eclectic mix of skills.