Celebrate Respect History Project

From February 2022-2024, WonderZoo archived the Plymouth Respect Festival, which is an annual multi-cultural celebration of diversity in Plymouth, UK, founded by Ann Wilkinson and Dan Thompson in 1998.

This project collected oral history interviews with those involved over the years, as well as historical artefacts, such as photos, videos, artworks, and costumes, in order to preserve its memories for posterity.

The project was funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund, in partnership with the Respect Festival, Plymouth and Devon Racial Equality Council and The Box Museum.

Dan Thompson

Ann Wilkinson

Ann Wilkinson and the History of PDREC and the Respect Festival

For many years, Ann Wilkinson’s name was synonymous with PDREC (formerly Plymouth and District Racial Equality Council). Ann participated in the formation of PDREC in the early 1990s and was a key driving force in the city in tackling racism and discrimination and promoting anti-racism and equality.

As a woman of mixed race in Plymouth, she experienced racism, oppression and prejudice and every day of her life she fought against it. She was passionate about racial justice and stood up and spoke out for the rights of all ethnically diverse citizens.

No-one who met her could ever forget her energy, compassion and tenacity. She would often begin a story by saying ‘let me tell you something’ and go on to narrate in detail her encounters with clients she had helped when they came to Plymouth and who came to PDREC as a place of last resort, all other avenues of support having fallen away. She had an unwavering commitment to fairness and social justice, as an opponent she was awe-inspiring - direct, unflinching and insistent.

She dared to speak truth to power, and she kept on speaking the truth, no matter how uncomfortable that might be. Of course, like all powerful people, she had detractors but even when people disagreed with Ann, they had respect for her and what she stood for.

Ann was a member of PDREC’s Executive Committee between 1996-1999, chair between 1997-1999 and co-director between 2007-2015. With her artist friend, Dan Thompson, she came up with the idea of organising the first Respect Festival in Plymouth in 1998 as a way of bringing the diverse communities in the city together to celebrate their commonalities in a safe environment.

The Respect Festival has just celebrated its 24th year in 2022 and, in many ways, symbolises Ann’s long contribution to the city.

Ann sadly passed away on 7th October 2020

Timeline of the Celebrate Respect Project (2022-2024)

We have conducted 80 oral history interviews with people who have been linked to the Plymouth Respect Festival, including Organisers, Participants, Stall Holders, Partner Organisations, Artists, Performers, and Audience members.

We have collected 12,012 artefacts and more from the Respect Festival, which have been deposited at The Box Museum. We have collected artefacts from every year from 1998 to 2023, except for one year, 2014. This was the year that there was no Respect Festival and will remain an open archive.

We have commissioned and paid for Fotonow CIC to produce two films about the Respect Festival, including archival footage, spoken word clips and photos due 2026.

Memory Exchange/ Brunch Talks 2022 ongoing

We created a monthly community history group called ‘Memory Exchange’, where we shared updates of the project to the local community, held at Oasis Project, 28 Manor Street, Stonehouse. We did 20 of these events over 2022 and 2023. Its now changed its name to be called Brunch Talks at the same venue, with a broader range of speakers from diverse backgrounds with a further- talks taking place throughout 2024 and 2025.

Plymouth History Festival

May 2022- We were part of the Plymouth History Festival, where we had an information stall over two days about the project, and we did an online talk and workshop around the history of the Respect Festival. 20 people attended.

Respect Festival

July 9th 2022 - Plymouth Guildhall, City Centre, we ran an information table about the Celebrate Respect History Project and ran a program of live entertainment featuring 11 diverse artists and groups, including: soul, hip-hop, reggae, theatre, spoken word, comedy and singer-song writers. We also had 4 maker tables with local artists: drawing, painting, felt crafts, card making and badges. We had roving young reporters, who were volunteers from Arts University Plymouth and Plymouth University, working with Fotonow CIC who interviewed people in video and audio, to add to our archive. Overall Audience for the Respect Festival was 6000 people.

Earth Café

In October 2022 Chi Bennett gave a talk about the Celebrate Respect Project at Earth Café, which is a monthly meet up for environmentalists and activists in the city, based at Union Corner, Union Street. To an audience of 50 people.

Plymouth Social Enterprise Network Festival

November 2022, we created an event for the Plymouth Social Enterprise Network Festival, where we curated the final event for them. At this event, Chi Bennett gave a talk about the Celebrate Respect Project to an audience of 100.

RAAY pop-up exhibition

November 2022- RAAY, Stonehouse. We did a pop exhibition from 11am-4pm over five days, with an average of 20 people per day (100 people total). The exhibition featured short films and audio from the Celebrate Respect Project archives, and a display of 120 photos from the archives, clipped to washing lines around the building.

Grand BAME Gala Awards 2023

January 2023- Chi Bennett won an award at the 5th annual business awards for people of global majority backgrounds, held at Plymouth Pavilions for her inspiring work. The award was for ‘Ubuntu’, meaning Culture and Identity preservation, for the work she has done with the Celebrate Respect project, helping to create the Hidden Figures Project, and the other work she has done as co-director of WonderZoo.

Arts University Plymouth

February 2023, we give a talk/workshop about the Celebrate Respect Project to an audience of 15 students, alongside an anti-racism training workshop conducted by PDREC.

Exhibition at Talk Shop

February 2023 – Exhibition at Talk Shop, We did a 5 day pop-up exhibition, 12pm-4pm each day. We displayed 16 x A2 Photographs taken from the archives. We showed short films from the archive. We had an arts knitting group use the space during the exhibition, consisting of 20 people. We conducted 2 racial equality training workshops over two days, total of 22 people attended. Audience numbers were on average 20 per day to see the exhibition. Total 142 people saw the exhibition.

Stonehouse Residents Association

May 2023 -WonderZoo talked about the Celebrate Respect Project at the Stonehouse Residents Association to an audience of 55 people.

Exhibition -Vacancy Atlas

In June 2023, we did a small exhibition in a shop called Vacancy Atlas, Plymouth City Centre, as part of a celebration of Plymouth’s Social Enterprise businesses. There were 24 groups exhibiting work, and over 100 people attended the opening event. The Celebrate Respect exhibition stayed up for 2 weeks, with around 100 more people viewing the exhibition.

Exhibition in Blockhouse Park Community Centre

In July 2023 we put on an exhibition, as part of the Stoke Park Fun Day, which attracts annually around 2000 people. We showed 16 x A2 photographs taken from the Respect Festival archives, and one piece of writing about the project and the history of the Respect Festival. The exhibition was on the walls for three weeks, and the space gets used by many different community groups every day.

Plymouth Community History Festival 2023

Ongoing Festival created by WonderZoo coming out of the Plymouth History Festival.

October 2023-Plymouth Community History Festival, The Box, Chi Bennett gave a to 24 people. The festival was widely advertised and attracted new audiences in Plymouth. This festival was created by WonderZoo in collaboration with the Box. The Box had asked Slain McGough Davey to work with them to create this festival because of the work done with the two diverse history projects. During the festival, there was an opening day with talks, 20 information stalls inside The Box, 23 vendors outside The Box main entrance, with 1770 visitors that day. There were five diverse talks and walks during the week, and a closing event.

Global Plymouth event called SwatChat3

November 2023- Slain McGough Davey and Rachel Hawadi

gave a talk at Plymouth University in for an event created by Global Plymouth called SwatChat3, and part of a discussion panel on the topic of intersectionality. Audience of around 100 students and members of the community.

School workshop

February 2024, WonderZoo went to St Mary’s primary school in Stonehouse, Plymouth, to do a workshop with around 100 children from different year groups about diversity and inclusion, including information about the Celebrate Respect project and Plymouth Respect Festival.

Handover ceremony at The Box

6th April 2024, we had an official handover ceremony at The Box, to mark the end of the Celebrate Respect project where we handed over all the physical and digital artefacts, as well as the printed archiving spreadsheets. We gave a talk and PowerPoint presentation on the project, alongside talks by Rebecca Bridgman (Head of Collections and Programme) from The Box, Julie Paget (head of PDREC) about the Respect Festival and where it’s going, and Rachel Hawadi about the Hidden Figures of Plymouth project. 20 representatives of different organisations in Plymouth attended this handover event, including Global Plymouth, Arts University Plymouth, University of Plymouth, Devon and Cornwall Police Diverse Communities Team, The Box’s Culture Club group, Diversity Business Incubator, Devon and Cornwall Refugee Support, Respect Festival organisers past and present, and PDREC directors past and present.

Hidden Figures Exhibition, Super Saturdays, The Box, February 2025

A smaller exhibition was successfully displayed in a pod for a month during February 2025 as part of The Box’s Super Saturday’s initiative.

2nd Super Saturday February, The Box-2025 presented the Hidden Figures Project/Respect through a talk, screening a short film, and hosting a panel discussion featuring various members of the project. The discussion focused on untold stories of people from Global Majority backgrounds-both past and present-who have made significant contributions to culture, arts, sport, and business in Plymouth. This event, attended by over 120 people, was conducted in collaboration with artist Osman Yousefzada.

Ten School anti- racism workshops-2025

Throughout primary schools in Plymouth for the for the Community Recovery Fund. We have created a 2-hour drama workshop based around the idea of equality and diversity and involves an interactive workshop around the story of a Platypus and how he doesn’t fit into nature’s normal categories – as a metaphor for people who are different and don’t fit in. The workshop also includes drumming, writing, drawing, music, dance and a PowerPoint presentation, with chance for a questions, conversations and discussions. we reached over 1000 kids.

Plymouth Community History Festival 2025

Oct Thursday 2nd to Saturday 4th Part of Super Saturday linked to the wonderful Remember Respond Resist Festival exhibitions. That featured talks by:

Hidden Figures Project: Fostering resilience, innovation, and inclusive leadership
Ruby Nation: The Lesbian Voices of Plymouth Project
Mimi Jones: Queer Out Loud
Anglo-Polish History and Heritage
Artist Talk: In Conversation with Goshka Macuga

'Picture This' performed by Alix Harris and the Beyond Face Youth Company.

Market and Children's activities and stalls