As a part of an 18-month long research and training, the South Asian Cinema Foundation (SACF)’s Heritage Project is based on the “Selective Inclusion: African & Asian Celebrities’ in London’s ‘Vanity Fair’ magazine (1868-1914)”.
Asian Voice spoke to the Chief Researcher, Dr Kusum Pant Joshi who discussed the logistics of the project, its objective and the outcome.
What’s the inspiration behind the idea of the heritage project and collecting caricatures, biographical information on Asians and African celebrities in Vanity Fair magazine?
KPJ: Our funders, the UK’s Heritage Lottery Fund, is a body that awards grants on the basis of certain criteria. So I developed our present Heritage project on the basis of the criteria specified by them in order to qualify for consideration and selection for one of their grants award. Generally, the idea to collate caricatures, biographical data and other information on various African & Asian celebrities for this project is aimed to train volunteers in basic research methodology, online picture research and to share our learning with the wider community.
How challenging is it to narrow down to 28 non-British celebrities included in this magazine from India, Africa, China, Japan, Korea, Thailand and Malaysia?
KPJ: By narrowing our geographical area and focusing only on African & Asian celebrities featured by ‘Vanity Fair’ (VF) between 1868 and 1914, we came to know that we had a list of 28 celebrities to cover. This has helped to make our project comprehensive as well as more manageable and less challenging.
Assuming that work on the project will mostly happen via digital communication, how do you expect the project to evolve further?
KPJ: Luckily, with help from our research volunteers, we had managed to locate all our VF caricatures and related biographical data from the British library and other sources. We had also ordered all our VF caricatures and related biographical data from various suppliers. Moreover, the Lockdown has revealed that we can use new technology to push forward with the work of the project. We have therefore, managed to keep working on our project. We have, for example, started writing biographies of the 28 celebrities based on the data/material/ photos that we have gathered. We have identified and spoken to descendants of some of the celebrities in our project and plan to record online interviews with them.
Who all can be a part of it? Is there a specific criteria?
KPJ: Anyone from any background and ethnicity who is an adult and is interested in heritage, people, history, culture, art, creativity, social cohesion and wishes to work with others and learn /polish new / existing skills is welcome.
It is heartening to see that your literature on the project clearly mentions that volunteers will be given due credit. Tell us more about it.
KPJ: We realise that ordinary members of the public and ordinary people are very important. It is our sim to interest people so that they take an interest in our project and learn and contribute to our project. It’s a community project. It is not for our glory or to add another feather in our cap! We have been trying to link up with individuals and other community groups/ organisations/ (also descendants of these 28 celebrities wherever possible) and involve them. To keep people involved, we MUST acknowledge their contribution. So we will make sure that whoever does something, each of them will be mentioned and given due credit! Their involvement, inclusion and contribution to our project, will be our success!
Please elaborate more on the anticipated outcomes of the project.
KPJ: Most of the outcomes or results will be obvious and countable, e.g. number of exhibitions, training events, film or films made, number of volunteers etc.
(Note: Due to the Lockdown, we are trying to negotiate producing an illustrated book or booklet on our 28 personalities, instead of 3 short films.) We are also gathering feedback from volunteers via feedback forms and will analyse these. Regarding wellbeing, we have been requesting some GPs and Counsellors to recommend anyone showing signs of mild depression to join our project as volunteers so that we can try to impact on their wellbeing by connecting them with other volunteers and giving them some learning opportunities. We also have some trained Mental health counsellors on our Advisory Board who will guide us in this area of promoting and monitoring wellbeing.
What else is in the pipeline for the upcoming months?
KPJ: Continue to fulfil the aims of the project, monitor the project, liaise with the funders to update and answer their queries and discuss and agree to any further modifications that might be one new essay during this unclear and challenging Corona period!
The project involves public events and relevant training for community volunteers. Tell us more about this.
The public events include :
Two exhibitions of pictorial material of the VF and new portraits and artwork created by artists from various age groups in two London venues, other info and artefacts.
Three Talks/ PowerPoint presentations to share our findings with the general public.
A pageant of a selection from our List of 28 celebrities by school pupils in a London school.
The training events include:
Free Training and hands on experience for a group of about 15 adult community research volunteers in the following areas: research, filmmaking, publicity, making presentations, curating an exhibition, digitising, oral history interviewing and recording.
Free training of 100 school pupils in how to create caricatures by a trained caricaturist.
