Exhibition: TALA! - Visions of Angola

Powell-Cotton Museum, Quex Park, Birchington, Kent

TALA! (‘come and see’) - Visions of Angola, is a very special exhibition for 2012 made possible through the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund.  It presents previously unseen artefacts, photographs and film footage drawn from the rich wealth of materials brought back from Angola in the 1930's by Diana and Antoinette Powell-Cotton, the two pioneering daughters of Major Percy Powell-Cotton.

The exhibition curators spent a year of working closely with the Angolan diaspora in the UK, including community groups and official institutions to create this multi-media display of carefully selected historical and contemporary objects as well as film footage that reflects and celebrates some very personal histories including that of the two sisters whose vision is only now being realised. The individual stories that motivate many of the selections have also been recorded and will be available via audio handsets alongside display cases, giving the objects a new voice, representing continuity, change and an evolving Angola. 

Commenting on the exhibition, the curators said:  “The objects we had access to, were made by somebody’s great grandmother or great grandfather. They deserve to be seen and remembered by their rightful ancestors as well as the wider public. Just as importantly, the Angolan community here in the UK have a right to be involved in the decisions made about the collection. This is after all their history.” This unique and collaborative form of curation has innovatively mixed old and new to provide a fresh view of Angola and the collection. 

See: http://www.quexmuseum.org/home/copy-of-museum.aspx