After last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests demanding change, many arts and cultural institutions took a public stance in grappling with their colonial pasts and more proactively supporting diversity and inclusion. But how much has changed? 

This free event examines how museums - and the young professionals working in them - can effectively respond to the challenges of confronting historical white-centric norms and the entrenched narratives of colonialism and racism.

Join the panel of researchers and professionals from the museum sector in the UK to explore what having a post-colonial perspective means for museums and those working with them. We’ll discuss practical examples of how this framework can be used to create more inclusive spaces, specific ways that individuals can play an active role in supporting change, and more. There will also be an opportunity for Q&A.

We are excited to welcome the following panellists:

• Janine Fancois, Black British Feminist, Critic, Writer, and Ph.D candidate at University of Bedfordshire/Tate where she is exploring how Tate can be a safer space to discuss issues of race and cultural differences within a teaching and learning context.
• Marenka Thompson-Odlum, Doctoral candidate at the University of Glasgow and Research Associate at the Pitt Rivers Museum where she is the researcher on the Labelling Matters project, which investigates the problematic use of language within the Pitt Rivers Museum's displays and thinking through ways of decolonisation through re-imagining the definition of a label

And the event will be chaired by:

• Teresa Cisneros, she is a Chicana living in London. An arts administrator by choice though she has practiced as a curator and an educator. Cisneros has worked with many art institutions including Nottingham Contemporary, Tate, Spike Island and Serpentine to explore care, policy making, learning, and institutional change. In 2016-18 at The Showroom she curated Object Positions to explore cultural equity, decolonial processes and colonial administration. She is a part of agency for agency and is Inclusive Practice Lead at Wellcome Collection. She is interested in reconstructing cultural institutions from the inside to begin working towards forms of justice.

The event is free, and all you need to do is register for a ticket. The Zoom link will be sent out on the day of the event.