The British Museum Department of Africa, Oceania
and the Americas recently launched a new grant programme to fund
documentation of critically endangered material knowledge systems across
the globe, with a focus on non-western contexts. The Endangered Material Knowledge Programme (EMKP) is a major programme
to help preserve the knowledge of endangered material practices for
future generations. Societies around the globe are changing at an
unprecedented rate, and specialist, locally-informed knowledge is in
danger of being lost - knowledge that has helped communities thrive in
unique environmental, social and cultural contexts. The programme will
document what we might term the ‘made world’ and how people use, build,
make and repair the natural resources around them to create their
distinctive societies, homes and spaces. The scope of this work will be
potentially huge – material practices can range from special events, to
the production and use of everyday household items like cooking
implements, agricultural tools or clothes, as well the houses and
buildings that people occupy.
Funded by
Arcadia – a charitable trust of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin,
grants will be available for digital recording of material practices,
which will then be made publically available through an open access
repository hosted by the Museum.
Small grants (c£15,000) and large grants (c £70,000) are available, and details of the programme and links to the application forms can be found on the British Museum website.
