Arts Review Round Up: Dudley's Peoples Archive

In the windswept town of Dudley, you might want to head to the warmth of the Full Moon on the High Street, or perhaps stop off for some food at the cafes. But there’s a light on at CoLab Dudley.

Dudley CoLab’s mission is to “[nurture] a kinder, more creative… High Street.” I can think of nothing more important after the frank, necessary but cutting disconnect of the past two years, and this new exhibition from The Dudley Peoples’ Archive, ‘Growing Up In Dudley’, is a perfect addition.

Stroll through the door and you’ll see the faces of the past. And I mean the faces – this archive is by the people, for the people. There are no lofty essays about the titans of industry and how the fruits of our labour made somebody else very rich, usually at the expense of our health and happiness. Instead, the photographs show the deeply personal highs and lows of carving out a life in the beating heart of the Black Country, from striking nurses to goths in platforms. Local voices filtered throughout the space on opening night, speaking of Dudley as it was, is and may be.

Collected over years of hard work and the co-operation of locals, you’ll be inundated with worlds of subculture, subversion and social change not often considered as part of the Black Country psyche. Local heroes such as Sir Lenny Henry receive their own wall of memory, but the exhibition wants everyone’s stories, big or small – with a wall that can be added to in real time reflecting this. You can help tell your story of the town by attaching your original photograph, or by using the handy laser printer to produce a copy.

Phase two brought us art, poetry and tapestry, complimenting the scale model of the High Street. What it means to grow up in Dudley was further probed, no longer just with a sheen of nostalgia, but accompanied by probing questions about what the future holds for this “tired” market town. The photography by Marta Kochanek is a particular highlight of this section, not overly sentimental but beautiful and raw.

Stories of the Windrush generation, memories of buildings that no longer sit on the horizon, the sticky sensation of a pint down your back at J.B.’s; Dudley Peoples Archive have done everything in their power to help us write our own story, and I urge you to be a part of it. Newcomers to Dudley, I urge you to come along and see a different side to the statistics – because it was never the industry that made Dudley great, but the lives of real people who made Dudley their home.

‘Growing Up In Dudley’ will run until 3rd December 2021. For more information, visit the Dudley Peoples Archive website: https://www.dudleypeoplesarchive.com/

For more information on CoLabs Dudley, visit: https://dudleyhighstreet.uk/colab-dudley/

Review by Laura Jane Round