Dawinder Bansal

Independent Governor

1st Term of Office

Dawinder Bansal is an award-winning British artist, producer and presenter who creates and shares stories using theatre, moving image and immersive art installations. Fascinated by people’s lived experience and their stories, her work is informed by her cultural heritage as well as contemporary stories. Dawinder unearths hidden stories to entertain, inspire and subtly provoke audiences to rethink people’s experiences: both the commonalities and the differences. 

In 2017 Dawinder re-created her family’s Indian Kenyan living room and shop in an evocative art installation at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Jambo Cinema was subsequently shown at New Art Exchange, Nottingham and a specially commissioned film was screened by Barbican Centre for Leytonstone Loves Film Festival and the BFI Film Festival. Dawinder hopes to tour the film and art installation to other venues in 2021/22.

Other commissions include the short film, We Found Love in the 80s, for which she partnered with musician Martyn Ware, founder of The Human League and Heaven 17, to celebrate couples who found love in the 80s. The film premiered as part of Leytonstone Loves Film produced by the Barbican and was also screened at Wolverhampton Literature Festival.

Previous commissions include Asian Women and Cars: Road To Independence – exploring the untold stories of first generation Asian women who learned to drive in the UK. It was presented at the V&A and won the Best Creative Media Award 2019. Other projects include The Making of a South Asian Wedding for the National Festival of Making and Mother Tongues from Farther Lands for the Southbank Centre.

She is a fellow at the Royal Society of Arts, serves on the Diversity Board at ITV Central and the Board of Trustees at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre and is an Arts Advisor to the prestigious Jerwood Arts Foundation. In 2017 Dawinder was recognised at the Asian Women of Achievement Awards.