The Gathering was produced with Mansfield Cultural Services, and was the result of a period of community outreach work in the town, engaging with members of the (established) Latvian and Polish communities, and the (emerging) Keralan community.
Taking place in the museum’s Buxton Gallery three events were held which combined music and storytelling to celebrate and explore the culture and heritage of these communities in the hope that this will lead to further collaboration with the museum and theatre.
As the flyer for the Polish event said: ‘These are stories told by those whose family members left the harsh Siberian POW camps to journey half way across the world and settle in Mansfield, where they would play such a key part in our social life. From the establishment of the Polish club, the opening of butchers and bakers, football clubs, food parcels and the fall of Communism, right through to the arrival of a new generation of Poles in the early years of this century we will gather together the threads of the Mansfield Polish experience’.