When Hilton Callaghan sensed the need for an association that actively celebrated the history and achievements of Slough's Afro-Caribbean residents he applied his business experience to help set up SWIPE (Slough West Indian People's Enterprise). The next nine years were to see SWIPE mentoring young people at risk of exclusion from school, showcasing African-Caribbean music, and documenting the memories and history of Afro-Caribbean settlers in Slough on film. Few people would associate solid business skill with successful artistic projects but for Hilton that's precisely why, after so many years, SWIPE is still around.
Many would consider SWIPE's biggest achievement to be an exhibition of Afro-Caribbean culture during the first year of the new century, the purpose of which was to not only highlight the difficulties experienced by the first immigrants to Slough but also how successfully the community has integrated. 'A lot of young Afro-Caribbean people did not get the full story of how everything came about and what jobs these people had to take. You'd have qualified people who used to work in good jobs in the Caribbean who, when they came here, could not get the jobs they were trained to do.' Hilton says and goes on to relate incidents ridiculous enough to beggar belief, such as the story of one man who attended a church for three weeks before being kindly asked to leave by the Priest and the parishioners simply for being black.
The project, comprised of an exhibition, a broadcast quality documentary entitled 'The Burning Flame', and a celebratory event, and was always going to need substantial sums of money to fund it but initially Hilton, and SWIPE, had little more than ambition. 'We did not have a high profile.' Says Hilton. SWIPE first approached Slough Borough Council and was disappointed to learn that the Council could offer no funds. Luckily, someone took the initiative and approached each Council department to see if they had underspent their budget. In this manner SWIPE managed to raise £5,000. Awards For All, Sara Lee and the Arts Council donated further funding and in total SWIPE accumulated £31,000. Of course, amassing funds does not an exhibition make and planning and executing the project has certainly taught Hilton and Joseph and Jenny Fenton to be patient and determined when fund-raising as Hilton comments, 'Trying to get funding is not the easiest of things.' However, for Hilton the trouble of locating and securing funds pales in comparison to the positive effects such an exhibition, has on the wider community.
Despite his success Hilton is far from complacent and has already set about realising his next goal of creating a Slough based music centre for the community as a whole where, 'Children from the age of five could access music and learn to play recorders and a man of 90, who always wanted to do music but never got a chance, could come in and sit down and learn to play a guitar or banjo.' Another artform close to Hilton's heart is the manufacture and music of steel pan drums. The traditional method of manufacture was to beat out a steel pan in a field using rudimentary tools, a method that is dirty, noisy, and environmentally unfriendly. In order to preserve the tradition in Slough and increase the instruments’ popularity SWIPE worked with Arts Development to apply to the Heritage Lottery Fund and were awarded £49,500 to establish a workshop that produces steel pans using new, improved, environmentally friendly equipment. The bid was successful and the Steel Pan Yard based on Slough Trading Estate opened for business in 2007.
Interview: Andrew Unsworth
Photograph: Malcolm Glover