Event - Settler Colonialism, Slavery and the Problem of Decolonizing Museums

 

Event: Pick and Mix 2: This Time It’s Personal

• Date: March 12, 2020 10:00 am – 4:30 pm
• Venue: Horniman Museum and Gardens

We're delighted to share information about this event organised by  Museums and Communities East Network. It is an opportunity to reflect on your personal practices and how we can begin to decolonise our work. Through a better understanding of our own ways of working and the small changes we personally make, we can start to make our organisations more open and welcoming.
 

Kicking-off with a facilitated exploration of the Horniman’s recently reopened World Gallery, we will meet some of their team and share in their learning (i.e. steal their good ideas). 

Subhadra Das will lead an afternoon workshop, exploring ideas arising from the morning’s session.

You will complete the day with a handful of actions to start making changes in your organisation.

After the workshop, the conversation will continue at the Merchant of Bishop’s Gate (located within Liverpool Street Station). This event will provide an informal networking opportunity, and a chance to discuss the day’s ideas with a wider group of people. All welcome to the pub – no booking required!

Post-workshop chat commencing at 5pm.

Bursaries available – contact Eleanor (Eleanor.root@colchester.gov.uk) to chat about the support you need to come along!

More details and booking on their own website.

 

From De-Colonial to Anti-Colonial: What’s Next for Museum Interpretation? conference 31 March 2020

Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, Tuesday 31 March 2020

Conference programmed by Sonya Dyer in collaboration with the Understanding British Portraits network

What do we mean when we talk about decolonisation? Why is it necessary? What specific challenges does portraiture as a genre present? What strategies can museums and galleries put in place to support the process of decolonisation? What is the difference between being de-colonial and anti-colonial?
Dealing with the impact of Britain’s colonial history within the cultural sector is a process – an on-going series of actions and activities that aim to change the way we interpret our complex and contentious history through portraiture. By sharing ideas, strategies and activism, delegates are invited to take part in a day of conversation aimed at inspiring and empowering them to action within their institutions.

More details will be going up on the Barber Institute website soon. 

⇒ Opportunity for film maker – deadline Monday 17 February 2020

The Understanding British Portraits professional network wishes to appoint a film maker for this conference which forms part of the UBP network’s events programme for museum and gallery professionals and researchers in the UK. This is an opportunity to contribute to the planning and delivery of a legacy film which will encapsulate some of the messages and debate at the event, and offer a relevant resource for museum professionals engaging with the process of collection and institutional decolonisation. The role would suit a freelancer with some knowledge of the current conversations around decolonisation in the museum/arts/heritage sectors. Formal study or qualification in this field is not necessary, and we welcome applications from film makers with empathy for the subject matter, who will bring enthusiasm and creativity to the project.

Full details and job description can be found on the Barber Institute website. 

Job Opportunity: Research Assistant in Digital Archiving

Contract: fixed term for 8 months
Reference: 0407
Salary: starting at £29,515 and rising to £33,199 per annum, pro rata
Placed on: 7 December 2018
Closing date: 15 January 2019.  Applications must be received by midnight of the closing date. 
Expected interview date: 4 February 2019
Expected start date: 1 April 2019.

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Job description

The University of Sussex is seeking to appoint a digital assistant to work on a new AHRC funded project, ‘Making African Connections from Sussex and Kent Museums:  Decolonial Futures for Colonial Collections’. The successful candidate will join a team of international scholars and curators engaged in a ground-breaking project that documents the little known historic African collections in South coast museums, focused on 3 specific collections of international significance originating in missionary, military and ethnographic encounters between 1890 and 1940 in Botswana, Sudan and the Namibia/Angola borderlands.

One of the project’s major outputs will be the creation of a digital archive based on the digitization of a minimum 600 artefacts. The Research Assistant’s primary role will be to work on this digital archiving aspect of the project, overseeing metadata capture and digitisation of analogue materials.  It will involve travel to the Royal Engineers Museum (Gillingham) and the Powell Cotton Museum (Birchington on Sea), as well as work at University of Sussex.

The successful candidate will have a Masters-level qualification in archiving and/or digital humanities as well as experience working on similar projects. In addition they will have a) Knowledge of African History and b) Experience of working in a Museum environment. They will be based in the Department of History within the School of History, Art History and Philosophy (HAHP) at the University of Sussex, and will be closely supported by the cross-disciplinary Sussex Humanities Lab (SHL).

Further information is available on the University of Sussex website.