Creative Connections Coventry

About

Taking inspiration from the collections at the National Portrait Gallery and the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, artist Maryam Wahid has worked with students from Barr’s Hill School to explore and celebrate Coventry people. A series of portraits of the students by Maryam Wahid are displayed alongside paintings and photographs from the Galleries’ collections. The exhibition presents portraits and inspirational stories of people associated with Coventry - including George Eliot, EM Forster, Philip Larkin, The Specials, Susan Hill, Sarah Siddons, Ellen Terry, Billie Whitelaw, John Piper and Mo Mowlam.

Creative Connections is part of the National Portrait Gallery’s transformational Inspiring People project which includes an extensive programme of nationwide activities, funded by The National Heritage Lottery Fund and Art Fund. These ambitious partnerships with museums, local community groups and schools aim to bring the Gallery closer to communities across the UK.

Maryam Wahid is an award-winning artist. Through photography she expresses the origins of the Pakistani community in her hometown of Birmingham by exploring her deeply rooted family history and the mass integration of migrants within the UK. Her work focuses on womanhood, the history of the South Asian community in Britain and the notion of home and belonging.