Here To Stay
remains on permanent display
Initially commissioned as a temporary exhibition at Sandwell Hospital’s Education Centre, October 2018
Here to Stay went on to host fifteen iterations in London, Birmingham and the wider West Midlands
A timeline of Here To Stay’s legacy:
Panel Discussions
World Premiere of ‘Staying Power’ 11th October 2023
The Exchange, Centenary Square 27th October, 2022
Wolverhampton Art Gallery 23rd October, 2021
Solo Exhibitions
University of Birmingham: The Exchange, Centenary Square (27th October 2022)
Wolverhampton Art Gallery (8th August 2020 - 10th January 2021)
University of Birmingham’s Medical School executive corridor (October 2021 - October 2022)
Black Country and West Birmingham NHS Trusts Awards Evening (October 2021)
Coventry Cathedral projected on the exterior (October 2021)
Tower Theatre, Stoke Newington, London (October - December 2021)
Soho House, Handsworth, Birmingham (June 2020)
University of Birmingham’s Medical School (November 2019)
The Gap Centre for Cultural Action, Balsall Heath, Birmingham (November - December 2019)
Warwick University & Modern Records Centre (May - June 2019) supported by Wellcome Trust
Sandwell Hospital’s Education Centre (October 2018) remains on permanent display
Medicine Gallery, central Birmingham (September 2018)
Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, East London (August 2018)
Group Exhibitions
’The Art of Caring’ St. Pancras Hospital (July - October 2019) Camden & Islington NHS Foundation Trust
St. Georges Hospital, Tooting, London (May 2019)
‘My parents both came from Jamaica to seek work, back in the 1950s. I was born not long after they came. It was a time of great strain upon our people coming from the Caribbean to work here.
I grew up in a mainly Black and ethnic minority community in Handsworth, Birmingham. It was a time of Black consciousness and during those times, I was gaining more knowledge about myself as a Black woman living here in the UK. Growing up in this community helped shape that consciousness; to gain knowledge and develop skills. I became more interested in my African heritage.
According to British categorisation, I would be African-Caribbean. But first and foremost, I am African’ …
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Violet May-Hayles (2018)
Sheena Davidson (2018)
Janice Barrett (2018)
University of Warwick’s iteration (June 2019) was produced in partnership with the university’s on-site archival resource - the Modern Records Centre - and global charitable foundation: Wellcome Trust.
Dr. Aleema Gray (House of Dred founder) is pictured with portrait sitters while studying PhD, her thesis was entitled ‘Bun Babylon’
Sandwell Hospital’s Education Centre, exhibited throughout October 2018 and remains on permanent display.
This corridor is where seven healthcare professionals from Wolverhampton’s Clinical Commissioning Group regularly walk past their portraits, on their way to and from meetings with their managers.
Verrilline Vassell, 2018
(5th May 1930 - 14th March 2021)
Zamila Ewele (2021) photographed at Sick Be Nourished headquarters, Birmingham
I visited Zamila during the pandemic, when she and the SBN team were sorting through donated healthcare equipment/ Zamila is Empress’s sister, they were semi-retired at the time of being photographed, voluntarily managing Empress’s charity between shifts at hospitals across Birmingham.
sisters Empress Zauditu Ishuah and Zamila Ewele