Fantastic show of community support for exhibition

13 December 2017

It takes a village to raise a child and a community to support an exhibition. 

Crafts of the Punjab, the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum’s spectacular autumn exhibition has been successfully brought to Coventry thanks to incredible support from many individuals and organisations.

The exhibition is an exceptional showcase of the V&A’s South Asian Collection.  It forms part of the V&A’s work with regional museums and venues across the UK; a key strategy to make the V&A’s collections more widely available to the public.

Culture Coventry, the Trust that manages the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum relies on the generosity of its supporters to bring its programme exhibitions and events to Coventry. Arts Council England has provided core support to the exhibition through its Major Partner Museum programme.  The Arts Council is committed to working alongside museums to ensure that everyone, everywhere has the chance to access to the rich wealth of national treasures in our great public collections. The Heritage Lottery Fund has generously supported the activity and interpretation of the exhibition. 

Former Directors of Coventry’s NP Aerospace (Michael Linton Roger Medwell, Baljit Shergill and Robert Turner) generously supported the exhibition and the display of the Golden Throne of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.  Culture Coventry has also received financial support for the exhibition from Coventry Sikh Union, Lions Club of Mercia and the Ramgharia Sikh Temple.

Palvinder Singh Chana, Chairman of Coventry Sikh Union supported by Sikh Union Members handed over the cheque to Manny Coulon, Trustee of Culture Coventry 

Ravinder Sandhu, President of Coventry Mercia Lions hands over a cheque to Roger Medwell, Chairman of Culture Coventry, to support the Crafts of the Punjab exhibition.

Head of Fundraising for Culture Coventry, Emma MacLellan said: "We are overwhelmed by the support we have received from so many people and organisations who were so enthusiastic and so excited about helping us to make this exhibition happen in Coventry. Thank you to everyone who has been involved."

Through the support of many friends and contacts, the message of the exhibition has been distributed across the country and the museum extends thanks to Davinder Prasad, Omkar Singh Hunjan, Jitey Samra, Roger Medwell, Gurpreet Bhatia, Davinder Singh Gill, Harjinder Sehmi (Sikh Channel TV Birmingham), Shinda Sureela and Jas Dhesi  (Radio Panj Coventry) and Ekta-Unity, BOPA, Coventry Sikh Union and the Lions Club of Mercia and many others for all their help and support promoting the message of the exhibition.

Crafts of the Punjab runs until 21 January 2018.