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Museum exhibit traces Stroud’s Black History

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Stroud’s Museum in the Park is currently displaying Boats Births Brass and Bun – a glimpse into Stroud’s Black History. Organised by The Women’s Art Activation System (WAAS) and supported by Stroud Against Racism, the display features the work of key contributor, Dee Guthrie.

“We’re running a project called Baby Makers: Making History in partnership with the museum, and it’s about collecting birth history from the Stroud District,” explained Sharon Bennett from WAAS.

“We ran two workshops as part of this project with one focusing on black histories and one on elders’ histories.”

Museum exhibit 5 | Museum exhibit traces Stroud's Black History

The display features a variety of work by Dee Guthrie, whose parents moved to Stroud from the Caribbean in the 1950s: “I became involved because I remember a story my mum told me about how, in the 1950s and 60s, if you turned up at a maternity hospital, not necessarily Stroud, and you didn’t wear a wedding ring – because a lot of women’s hands swell during pregnancy – the matron would hand you a box of brass curtain rings so when the doctor came, who was usually a man, they wouldn’t assume they were dealing with an unmarried mother,” she explained.

Museum exhibit 4 | Museum exhibit traces Stroud's Black History

“A couple of the textiles I’ve made have been based on that story and include brass curtain rings. One’s got some wedding lace in it, and another has nappy pins. They’re embroidered in the colours of the Jamaican flag since that’s the culture I come from.”

Museum exhibit 2 | Museum exhibit traces Stroud's Black History

Dee’s work includes crochet, embroidery and painting: “I’ve been doing a wellbeing embroidery class online, which is run by Stroud College, with a group of 10 or 12 women and it’s become a little friendship group. Also, in the exhibit there is a piece of my mother’s embroidery she embroidered when she was on the ship from Jamaica to England in the 50s. That’s what really started my interest in embroidery.”

Museum exhibit 7 | Museum exhibit traces Stroud's Black History

Sharon added: “Part of our (WAAS) ethos is activating our own art practise as well as that of others, so we are really, really happy to include Dee’s work.”

Sarah Dixon, from WAAS, added: “There’s this amazing embroidery that she started at the Birth Workshop and that’s got history about using brass rings to protect unmarried mothers. She went on to make these embroideries and bring in her family history, it kind of flowed out of the project initiation.”

To find out more visit: The Baby Makers: Making History 2024 – The Women’s Art Activation System (thewaas.org)

The exhibition runs until December 15th and is open Tuesday to Sunday.

Museum exhibit 6 | Museum exhibit traces Stroud's Black History

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