Museumand

Museumand: The National Caribbean Heritage Museum is a group that celebrates the contribution of British African-Caribbean people to life in the United Kingdom. The group is a "museum without walls" based in Nottingham, and who work with communities there and elsewhere, including mounting exhibitions in museums, universities and other places.^[1] It was founded in 2015 by Catherine Ross as the SKN (Skills Knowledge and Networks) cultural museum,^[2] and Museumand is a subsidiary of the SKN Heritage Museum Community interest company.^[3]

In 2016, Museumand was invited to be part of the University of Oxford's Oxford and Colonialism Working Group.^[4] In July 2016, as SKN Heritage Museum, they launched an exhibition 52 Genres and Counting at the Splendour in Nottingham festival. The exhibition celebrated Black British music since 1947, and toured to the Bass Festival in Birmingham and Soul Fest in Liverpool.^[5][6]

In 2017 and 2018, Museumand collaborated in the University of Leicester Centre for New Writing's "Caribbean Journeys" project, resulting in a book Caribbean Journeys (2018, ISBN 9781527219212), an anthology of the writings of Caribbean elders recording their life experiences.^[7][8]

In 2017, Museumand hosted Caribbean Conversations, a series of 8 programmes on local television station Notts TV.^[9]

In 2018, the National Trust Museum of Childhood at Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire, hosted an exhibition of "Black Dolls: The Power of Representation" in conjunction with Museumand.^[10]

In 2019, Museumand's film White Gold; the story of sugar, slavery and settlement in the Caribbean was published in Feast online magazine, in issue #1 on the theme of sugar.^[11]

In 2021, Museumand partnered with the University of Lincoln's "Reimagining Lincolnshire" project to produce a four-day event in Lincoln including a performance "Hidden Stories: From the Caribbean to Great Britain".^[12]

70 Objeks & Tings is an exhibition and book which tell the story of the "Windrush generation" through their familiar objects and other aspects of their daily lives.^[13][14] The book Objeks & Tings was launched on Windrush Day in 2020, with online publication of its first section, on food, although COVID-19 had prevented the planned programme of workshops to gather and develop material for the book.^[13] The exhibition was on display at the Streetlife Museum in Hull in 2021 during Black History Month,^[15] and at Nottingham Castle when it reopened in 2023, and the book of the same title was available for sale there.^[16][17][18] Twelve episodes of an associated podcast Objeks & Tings were produced in June-September 2023 and were chosen by The Guardian as one of its "podcasts of the week".^[19][20]

Museumand's exhibition Pardner Hand: A Caribbean answer to British banking exclusion was displayed at the Bank of England Museum, London in 2023 and 2024, opening on Windrush Day in June 2023,^[21][18] and the museum published a series of blogs by Museumand's founders to accompany the exhibition.^[22]

The group's founder, Catherine Ross, who came to the UK in 1958 from Saint Kitts at the age of seven, is its director^[1][23] and her daughter Lynda-Louise Burrell is its creative director.^[24]

References

1. . Black History Month 2020. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
2. Hubbard, Emma (16 July 2015). "Nottingham's first Caribbean heritage museum is here". Notts TV News. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
3. . Museumand. Archived from the original on 25 September 2023. Museumand, The National Caribbean Heritage Museum a subsidiary of The SKN Heritage Museum CIC
4. "Museumand: Oxford and Colonialism Working Group: Why are we involved?". oxfordandcolonialism.web.ox.ac.uk. Oxford & Colonialism Network. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
5. . The Voice Online. 19 July 2016. Archived from the original on 1 April 2024. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
6. "Exhibitions". Museumand. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
7. "Caribbean Journeys". University of Leicester. Centre for New Writing. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
8. Research Output: Caribbean Journeys: Travel Writing By Nottingham Caribbean Elders. University of Bristol. 2018. ISBN 978-1-5272-1921-2. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
9. "Caribbean Conversations". Nottinghamshire Local History Association. 22 May 2017. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
10. "Black dolls exhibition aims to 'shock'". BBC News. 16 June 2018. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
11. "Sugar". Feast. 2019. ISSN 2397-785X. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
    Museumand (2019). "White Gold; the story of sugar, slavery and settlement in the Caribbean". Feast. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
12. "Hidden Stories: From the Caribbean to Great Britain". Being Human Festival. 11 November 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
13. "Museumand, The National Caribbean Heritage Museum launches new book for Windrush Day 2020 on the 22 June". Windrush Day 2020. 22 June 2020. Retrieved 7 March 2024. Includes online access to "Caribbean Food" chapter
14. "70 Objeks & Tings - Celebrating 70 Years of Caribbeans in the UK". Keep The Faith: The UK's Black and multi-ethnic Christian magazine. 3 October 2020. Retrieved 12 November 2020. Includes online access to "Caribbean Hair, Beauty & Dress" chapter
15. "First look at exhibition celebrating 70 Years of Caribbeans in the UK". Hull CC News. 1 October 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
16. Kendall Adams, Geraldine (23 June 2023). "Nottingham Castle prepares to welcome visitors back after eight-month closure". Museums Association. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
17. "Windrush 75th anniversary marked in opening exhibition at Nottingham Castle". My Nottingham News. Nottingham City Council. 21 June 2023. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
18. "How UK museums are marking Windrush Day". Museums + Heritage Advisor. 22 June 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
19. Duggins, Alexi; Richardson, Hollie; Verdier, Hannah (15 June 2023). "Best podcasts of the week: Celebrating 75 years of Caribbean food, culture and history". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
20. "Objeks & Tings". Message Heard. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
21. . What's On. Bank of England Museum. Archived from the original on 20 January 2024. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
22. Ross, Catherine; Burrell, Lynda (16 June 2023). "Community savings and the Pardner Hand". Blog. Bank of England Museum. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
    Ross, Catherine; Burrell, Lynda (23 June 2023). "The Pardner Hand and Black entrepreneurship in the UK". Blog. Bank of England Museum. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
    Ross, Catherine; Burrell, Lynda (30 June 2023). "Beyond the Pardner Hand - how else did Caribbeans manage their money?". Blog. Bank of England Museum. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
23. . Museumand. Archived from the original on 7 May 2021. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
24. . Museumand. Archived from the original on 29 July 2021. Retrieved 12 November 2020.

External links

• Official website
• "SKN Heritage Museum CIC - Overview". Companies House.
• Ross, Catherine; Burrell, Lynda. . Museumand. Archived from the original on 19 August 2022. Retrieved 15 February 2024. Full text of 148-page book via issuu: may be slow to download