Case Study: Exploring Heritage Through Carnival: A Journey Inspired by Black British Music 

Thanks to free tickets from the Heritage Youth Partnership, Forest Hill Brownies visited the Beyond the Bassline: 500 Years of Black British Music exhibition at the British Library. The exhibition inspired group leader to explore ways to build on what they seen leading to a new project focused on carnival heritage. 

With input from the Brownies and leaders, they developed activities to explore carnival as a celebration of culture and identity. They learnt about their own heritage and that of their peers, while creating vibrant carnival masks and headdresses. The project culminated in a workshop and performance day with Kinetika Bloco, drawing on themes of carnival and Black British music. 

“Our project at Forest Hill, Brownies, focused on carnival culture as it unified the heritage within our Brownie unit. Following an inspiring visit to the Beyond the Bassline exhibition held at the British Library, we briefly explored the origins of Carnival, concluding that every country has a form of carnival in their history.”- Brownie group leader