Derby West Indian Community Association (DWICA) works tirelessly to run a community centre and year-long activities for all ages. It is also renowned for creating and delivering Derby’s annual Caribbean Carnival. Derby Museums is proud to have an ongoing relationship with DWICA, including offering space for carnival artists to gather each year at the Museum of Making.

The Centre that Powers the Road was a partnership project that culminated in an exhibition at the Museum and Art Gallery, a book and a website dedicated to the heritage of the association. Find it here: https://dwicalegacy.co.uk/

The project included documenting and safeguarding the Association’s archive, recording oral histories and film, photography, intergenerations transfer of carnival making skills, artist commissions and the creation of some incredible carnival costumes. It was a partnership between Derby West Indian Community Association (DWICA) and Derby Museums (DM) funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF).

The collaboration began in 2020 with DWICA and DM discussing how they might work together. These conversations developed into a successful funding application to NLHF. This funding enabled the partners to research the history of the association, gather together archive material, explore collections in local archives and museums, train volunteers, record new oral histories and film, take new portrait photographs, commission artworks, create a heritage carnival costume based upon DWICA’s history and power DWICA’s Derby Caribbean Carnival committee and troupe to return to the road in the Summer of 2022.

Supporting Derby and the wider region’s Caribbean Carnival organisers, makers and troupe members was central to the project after the pandemic forced carnival off the roads in 2020 and 2021. The year long work and preparations at DWICA (which is the centre that powers Derby Caribbean Carnival to take to the road) were to be highlighted, valued and celebrated.

All of this work across 2021 and 2022 was drawn together into a very special exhibition at Derby Museum and Art Gallery in 2022 which can be viewed here.

Key material from DWICA’s archive has also been accessioned into Derbyshire Record Office. If you would like more information please contact info@dwica.co.uk

The partners are grateful for the NLHF for generously supporting their project and for their support in delivering it. We would also like to thank Big Lottery for funding DWICA’s Stronger Together programme and Charis Betts, Stronger Together Project Manager, who was integral to the early development of this project.

Exhibition:

18 March 2022 – 4 September 2022 at Museum & Art Gallery

The exhibition dives into the heritage of Derby West Indian Community Association (DWICA), including Windrush generation memories and the experiences of younger members growing up in Derby.

The exhibition explored how the Association has positively responded to challenges over six decades, to support its local community, building a legacy in the city through its many social, cultural, educational and sporting achievements. The exhibition celebrated the vibrancy and spirit of Derby Caribbean Carnival and the year-long local, national and international connections and collaborations that make this highlight of Derby’s cultural calendar possible.

This exhibition was part of The Centre that Powers the Road, a 12-month project exploring the heritage of DWICA, ensuring the history of the Association, and Derby Caribbean Carnival, is better looked after, more accessible and understood. In partnership with Derby Museums, the project will create an important archive for the city documenting the building of a community from the 1950s and the continued vital work of the Association today.

The Centre that Powers the Road was generously supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.