Dynamic New Exhibition Telling the Story of a South Asian Family Receives Funding

27 February 2025

Today Culture Coventry Trust is announcing a £131,350 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to celebrate and preserve the rich heritage of South Asian and British South Asian communities in Coventry.

The funding will support the upcoming exhibition, ‘Stories That Made Us: Roots, Resilience, Representation’, which will open at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum on 14 November 2025.

The exhibition will showcase the lived experiences of a South Asian family in Coventry from 1968 to 2010, drawing on Coventry Archives’ Virk Collection and curator & artist Hardish Virk’s ‘Stories That Made Us’ Collection. This will include photographs, books, magazines, posters, vinyl records, cassettes, and personal memorabilia that tell the story of migration, activism, identity and cultural contributions. The exhibition will also feature immersive room settings, oral histories, radio broadcasts, music, video, and graphics to bring these stories to life.

Coventry is home to a vibrant South Asian community, with 18.5% of the city’s population identifying as Asian or Asian British (2021 Census). Despite this, the stories and contributions of South Asian communities are often underrepresented in public collections and exhibitions. This project aims to address this gap by preserving and sharing the heritage of South Asian migrants and their descendants, ensuring their stories are accessible to future generations.

The exhibition will explore themes of Roots (the journey of migration and the contributions of South Asian communities to British society), Resilience (the challenges faced and overcome by migrants and their families), and Representation (the importance of telling these stories authentically and without stereotyping). By doing so, it will challenge conventional views of heritage and highlight the importance of living memory and personal experiences.

Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players, the grant  will enable the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum to develop an immersive exhibition featuring room settings, archival materials, and digital content as well as create an engagement programme to strengthen relationships with South Asian community groups in Coventry and beyond.

Marguerite Nugent, Cultural Director at Culture Coventry Trust said: “We are very grateful to have received this support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and National Lottery players which means we can bring the stories of Coventry’s South Asian communities to life in a way that acknowledges the deep cultural impact that they have made on the city. This exhibition is not just about the past – it’s about building bridges between communities and we hope this will lead to a deeper understanding of our shared history.

“We’re very much looking forward to working closely with Hardish on this important and exciting exhibition.”

Hardish Virk, co-curator of ‘Stories That Made Us: Roots, Resilience, Representation’, said: “This exhibition aims to tell the nuanced stories of migrant and British born South Asian communities, who made city’s like Coventry their home through the lived experience of one family. This exhibition doesn’t claim to tell every story, instead it will tackle themes of migration, activism and identity which will resonate with both South Asian communities as well as wider society.This exhibition is also  about reclaiming our stories and ensuring they are told with authenticity and integrity. Part of the legacy is to celebrate and document the positive contribution South Asian communities have and continue to make to every aspect of British society. I’m very excited to work in partnership with the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum to bring these stories to communities of Coventry and beyond.”