Member Article

Tyneside exhibition goes global

A North East media production company is this week opening its Tyneside oral history exhibition in the Yemeni city of Sana’a.

Bridge + Tunnel Production’s ‘The Last of the Dictionary Men’ exhibition documents the lives and memories of a little-known part of British immigrant history – the establishment of the UK’s oldest Muslim and Arab Community in South Shields. The exhibition was initially hosted by BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead in April of 2008.

Bridge + Tunnel’s Creative Director Tina Gharavi and photographer Youssef Nabil have spent the last three years with the community to record and collect the stories of this community. Alongside Nabil’s portrait images of the 13 remaining Yemeni men who first settled in South Shields, the exhibition also features interviews with each of the men about their journey to England, their life in the UK and their maritime experiences.

With help from the British Council in Yemen the exhibition will open at the National Museum in Sana’a later this week. The opening will be attended by the British Ambassador to Yemen and the British Council country director as well as Gharavi herself.

Gharavi said: “Having the exhibition open in Yemen is a dream I didn’t even dare imagine! Once this exhibition didn’t look like it would ever happen. But following the phenomenal success at the BALTIC in April 2008, it is wonderful that the images and stories of these men, our local heroes, return to their country of origin so that their own countrymen can see that we value their contributions and their stories as part of the rich tapestry of British Colonial history.”

The exhibition will stay in Yemen for six months. After this, the team at Bridge + Tunnel is planning to extend its tour, visiting places such as Hong Kong and Malaysia, and travelling back to England in 2012.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .