ASIANS MISSING OUT ON LOTTERY FUNDING
(10th February 2003 )

The Heritage Lottery Fund today voiced concerns that Asian communities across London are missing out on lottery funding. At the Asia Heritage Alive 2003 event, held in London last night, Clara Arokiasamy, Heritage Lottery Fund's Deputy Director of Operations said 'we are concerned that we have not had sufficient applications from the Asian communities in London."

"The Heritage Lottery Fund has supported a wide range of projects aimed at celebrating Asian heritage in the UK but we feel we can do a lot more. The event tonight is a first step to reach out to London's Asian communities, to let them know who we are, the types of projects we can fund and the support we can offer,"she continued.

The event which tool place at the Victoria and Albert Museum amidst the internationally renowned South Asian collections is the first event of its kind for the Heritage Lottery Fund, specifically targeting London's Asian communities and celebrating Asian heritage in the UK. Lord Dholakia OBE, DL the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Home Affairs gave the keynote speech, while Diane Abbott MP shared her experience and knowledge of London's diverse multi-cultural heritage. "Heritage isn't just a frill or an after thought. A sense of of who you are and where you came from empowers people politcally" she said.

Presentations from the Museum about their successful Cultural Diversity and Sikh Heritage Trail and from the South Asian Diaspora Literature and Arts Archive, gave a flavour of what lottery funding can achieve. "This is not just about celebrating Asian heritage but the contribution Asian communities have made to the rich and diverse heritage we enjoy in London and the UK today." added Clara Arokiasamy

'This can be explored in a variety of different ways through exhibitions and archives, buildings, museums and parks to the recording of oral history, traditions and customs. The Heritage Lottery Fund wants to encourage more communities to decide what heritage means to them and to explore their heritage from their perspective.'

Asia Heritage Alive 2003 forms part of a wider initiative by the Heritage Lottery Fund in London to reach more people with lottery funding. A new Development Team spends time meeting London communities to give specific advice on grant programmes and how to access funding especially to those groups who may previously have found it difficult to apply. "The messages we want to convey are simple" explained Clara Arokiasamy, "we give small and large grants. We want to improve the Asian community's access to HLF's funds. We want to enable celebration of Asian heritage and the British Asian experience and we want communities to tell us how to improve our services".

ABOUT THE HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND

The Heritage Lottery Fund enables communities to celebrate, look after and learn more about our diverse heritage. From our great museums and historic buildings to local parks and beauty spots or recording and celebrating traditions, customs and history, Heritage Lottery Fund grants open up our nation's heritage for everyone to enjoy. It has made more than 12,000 grants worth over £2billion to projects across the UK.

The V&A received a £90,000 grant from HLF for their Cultural Diversity and the V&A programme. The project sought to address issues of under-representation of black and ethnic communities in the V&A's activities by sustaining the participation of Sikh and other new audiences attracted to the Museum through previous exhibitions. The project involved a programme of festivals, a Sacred Spaces national photographic exhibition, the creation of The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms and Shamiana Internet sites, establishment of a Sikh history group, consultation work with communities on festival programmes, a supporting education programme, development of partnerships and focus groups with a number of ethnically diverse organisations.

SALIDAA (South Asian Diaspora Literature and Arts Archive) received £50,000 from HLF under the Your Heritage grant programme for the project Closing the Gap: Discovering South Asian Heritage. The project aims to research and collect materials relating to South Asian literature, art, theatre, dance and music in the UK dating back to 1947 which will be included in a three year digital archive project. The HLF grant funded the post of a part-time Outreach Collections Co-ordinator, the assembly and storage of the relevant South Asian materials and the production of a publicity leaflet and launch of project. Click here to visit the Salidaa website.

Click here to visit the Heritage Lottery Fund website to find out how you or your group can apply for a grant.

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