Last week, the Deaf Cultural Centre was honoured to welcome international visitor Anita Small who is the co-director of the first Deaf Culture Centre in the World.  The latter is based at Toronto in Canada.

  John A. Hay MBE, Anita Small, Sunny Chana, Robin Ash and Mike Reynolds

Anita's colleague, Joanne Cripps who is the other co-director, initially visited in May 2007 when bid services was temporarily relocated to Harborne Road, Harborne in Birmingham. She made a short visit to the Deaf Cultural Centre whilst it was being built on Ladywood Road. The construction finished just before September 2007 when Her Royal Highness, the Princess Royal, officially opened it on Monday 10th September.

bid trustee John A. Hay MBE who is also on the Board of Trustees for the Deaf Cultural Centre arranged this special trip for Anita to visit us. She met Mike Reynolds, Chair on bid services' Board of Trustees before she met with Gail Penberthy Development Director, Angela Murphy Team Manager of the Deaf Cultural Centre and Robin Ash, Community Development Manager. Robin said, "This was a great opportunity for all parties to discuss and share information. Although both centres are on opposite sides of the world, they are linked with the same aim and vision for deaf people to be empowered and be involved in exciting initiatives and creative projects".

  John A. Hay MBE with Anita Small

Anita elaborated on the Deaf Culture Centre in Canada, in which she said, "The Deaf Culture Centre opened at the historic culture, arts and entertainment Distillery District right in the heart of Old Town Toronto. It is contemporary, a fun gathering place that is open to the public and rooted in the Deaf community. It provides education, culture, visual and performing arts and also features a museum, art gallery and a gift shop. We also have archives, state-of-the-art visually rich technology highlighting Deaf historical artefacts, literature, sports, ASL/LSQ interactive television/website and a multimedia production studio".

Before ending her visit, she also met Sunny Chana, a devoted and inspirational artist of DANUK (Deaf Arts Network UK), which is based at Birmingham's Deaf Cultural Centre. Sunny briefly mentioned the development of the network over the past two years. He also told her about the kinds of roles the deaf artists play, including the continuing support they give to current and future artists before giving her a guided tour of all the art pieces currently on display inside Simister Hall.

  Robin Ash presenting the gift to Anita

Robin presented Anita with an art piece of work on behalf of the Deaf Cultural Centre which was created by Sunny himself. On receiving it, she sad "It is wonderful to learn about the Deaf Arts Network and to see you and other artists' work at the centre. I especially wish to thank you for the lovely piece of art you have gifted to our Deaf Culture Centre, we will find a lovely spot for it in our centre. I hope you find a way to come and see it for yourself!".

  Anita Small and Sunny Chana with the gift

You can find out more about the Deaf Culture Centre in Canada by looking on their website: www.deafculturecentre.ca