From Lubaina Himid to the Battle of Bamber Bridge: Curating and Narrating Black Atlantic Stories in British Museums and Communities
On April 4, MSP welcomed Fulbright Scholar Professor Alan Rice (DAAS, UMICH) who discussed a range of his work as curator, academic and activist in Lancashire, Great Britain. As a scholar of the Black Atlantic he has curated and co-curated exhibitions with Black British artists including the Turner Prize winner, Lubaina Himid, Godfried Donkor, textile artist Althea McNish and rising stars Jade de Montserrat and Lela Harris. This talk showcased these curatorial interventions including work with the Whitworth on their Trade and Empire exhibition where together with his co-curators he used extant objects to tell new stories about slavery and exploitation.
More recent work in Lancaster focuses on its history as the fourth largest slave port and uses the work of Black British artists to challenge the elision of difficult histories. He discussed how he, together with Lancaster Black History Group, uses the work of Himid, de Montserrat and Harris to get African Atlantic representation into the heart of the museum. His final short case study showed how together with Preston Black History Group he has worked with the community in Bamber Bridge to memorialise the widely forgotten story of a mutiny against Jim Crow segregation by African American troops in a small village in Lancashire. Overall, he presented the importance of activist interventions as an academic and curator.
