PRESS RELEASE

Press Release: Black British Museum Project

Written 27/07/2020

For immediate release 

 

A project to create Britain’s first museum celebrating Black British history, art and culture is being launched. 

 

The project aims to create a physical space for exhibitions showcasing the Black British experience. Currently in the start-up phase, the Black British Museum Project is an online platform exploring aspects of black history that is shaping a museum experience for future generations. The website will be a platform for testing ideas and developing relationships with partners and funders, to build a thriving sustainable business model for the museum. The new website can be found at www.blackbritishmuseum.com

 

With the announcement of Government funding to help the precarious situation facing museums and venues, the Black British Museum Project is highlighting the need for investment in the research and curating of black historical collections and art held in UK museums. This follows a report from the Arts Council England in February 2019 that showed that arts organisations, including museums, have failed to significantly improve the diversity of their leaders and staff. 

 

Founder and director of the Black British Museum Project, Sandra Shakespeare, says: “There are around 2,500 museums in the UK. But surprisingly, given a black presence in Britain dating back to Roman times, there is no permanent museum dedicated to black British history and art. This has resulted in a void that continues to present black history in fragmented distorted ways, and this is problematic. 

 

Black history is story of our nation. This is a history of connections and touch points that are intrinsic to the making of Great Britain. These stories must be told in bold, accessible and relevant ways. Our aim is to work with our national institutions and to foster a framework of collaborations, patronage and membership to sustain and function as a business. We want to explore the creation of a space that says we are proud to be Black, pan-African, and we are proud to be British.”

 

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• The Black British Museum Project is at www.blackbritishmuseum.com and tweets as @blackbritmuseum

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• For more information or to interview Sandra Shakespeare please contact hello@sandrashakespeare.london

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• Founder of the Black British museum Project, Sandra Shakespeare is a Clore Cultural Leadership Fellow with expertise in developing participatory programmes and events across the arts and heritage sectors. She is a Co-Founder of Museum Detox, a collective network of more than 170 BAME workers at major cultural and heritage institutions in the UK. Sandra has over 12 years’ experience delivering creative projects to engage public and diverse audiences, including work for the Asiko International Arts School led by the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Nigeria. Previous work  includes 6-years with The National Archives. Sandra holds an MA in Museum and Galleries in Education (Responsive Museums: Inclusion and Outreach in Practice) from UCL, Institute of Education.

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• Arts Council England published its report, Equality, Diversity and the Creative Case: A Data Report 2017-2018 in Feb 2019. https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/publication/equality-diversity-and-creative-case-data-report-2017-2018

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Vogue Online

Published 23/08/2020

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https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/black-british-museum