History Essay

section 1

introduction: the spatial Politics of the Museum Frontiers

i foreground this book with two powerful Black voices.1 First let us look at a piece of creative writing taken from the nobel prize-winning toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye, which highlights a subtle but pernicious racism, arising from the lived experience of daily life. Morrison states:

it had begun with Christmas and the gift of dolls. the big, the special, the loving gift was always a big, blue-eyed Baby doll. … adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs – all the world agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child treasured. “here,” they said, “this is beautiful, and if you are on this day ‘worthy’ you may have it.” … i could not love it. But i could examine it to see what all the world said was lovable. … it was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they had each accepted it without question. the master said, “You are ugly people.” they looked about themselves and saw nothing to contradict the statement; saw, in fact, support for it leaning at them from every billboard, every movie, every glance. “Yes,” they had said you are right. (Morrison 1990: 13, 14, 28) [my emphasis]

Morrison’s The Bluest Eye speaks of the awful negative power of racism to adversely impact on the identity of the young Black child. racism like colonialism objectifies people. It forces the Black ‘other’ to act not as agent but as subject – passively. racism sees only limited aspects of the other – humanity the whole complex human being in social relationships is reduced to black skin. as Franz Fanon testifies:

i found that i was an object … the glances of the other fixed me there … like a chemical dye. i was indignant, demanding an explication. … nothing happened. i burst apart. now the fragments have been put together again by another self. (Fanon 1993: 109) [my emphasis]

1 i employ the capital ‘B’ to describe Black people throughout my writing. this marks an act of political allegiance to address historic wrongdoing and denigration of ‘others’ as not only inferior but less than human in times of slavery.

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Learning at the Museum Frontiers2

reading Morrison and Fanon from the perspective of the museum,2 ethical and existential questions arise. What is the role of the contemporary museum? how can museum professionals act to combat racism and its pernicious effects today? Who will take responsibility and ‘speak truth to power’ when it diminishes our fellows? (said 1993: 63-75). these questions are focal points for all citizens living in the post-modern world and in my museum career with anthropology collections i have found Black writers offer a productive way forward, which i demonstrate in Learning at the Museum Frontiers: Identity, Race and Power. overall the book argues that museums can hold up a hope for challenging racist mindsets essentially through respectful dialogical exchange that i term feminist-hermeneutics. My intention is to guide the reader through unfamiliar philosophical terrain that has proved useful to progress learning in the museum as eilean hooper-greenhill and hugh genoways have notably shown (hooper-greenhill 2006; genoways 2006). at this early point in the book it is only necessary to point out that i have developed feminist-hermeneutics from the politically mindful Black feminist thought of writers including Patricia hill-Collins, audre Lourde and bell hooks with the more abstract philosophical hermeneutics of hans georg gadamer (hill-Collins 1991; Lorde 1996; hooks 1992, 1994; gadamer 1980, 1981, 1986). Basically feminist-hermeneutic practice is akin to Fanon’s notion of ‘authentic communication’, which urges ‘Why not simply attempt to touch the other, to feel the other, to reveal myself to the other?’ (Fanon 1993: 231). such communication in the museum is neither an easy task nor one we might simply fix forever like a mathematical equation, but it is worth striving towards and has an enduring value that lies in learning about the other and most importantly about the self – the self who does not remain unchanged.

in other words, what i want to do in this book is to look at the way in which the meaning of certain pernicious ideas about ‘other’ peoples and their cultures, which appear to be based on obvious factual evidence can change when they are questioned in between locations, at the frontiers of traditional disciplinary boundaries, and beyond the confines of institutional spaces. Specifically I present a view of the museum frontiers – a spatio-temporal site for acting in collaborative effort with other institutions, which provides a creative space of respectful dialogical exchange for promoting critical thought, for questioning taken-for-granted ideas in general and for challenging racist and sexist mindsets in particular. ultimately i argue that frontier museum work can progress lifelong learning, ‘intercultural understanding’ and what is known in the uK as community cohesion (golding 2006a, 2006b, 2007). in this i build on the work to further the social role of the museum and progress a more inclusive society undertaken by richard sandell, Jocelyn dodd and david Fleming (sandell 2007, 2004, 2003; dodd and sandell 2001; Fleming 2004). i also refer to the White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue, launched in 2008 by the

2 ‘Museums’ is a generic term used throughout the book that follows american practice and includes art museums, which are commonly referred to as art galleries in the uK.

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Introduction: The Spatial Politics of the Museum Frontiers 3

Council of europe in strasborg (<http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/intercultural/source/ White%20Paper_final_revised_EN.pdf> accessed on 28.11.2008).

Whether the museum holds some power to effect change in society is a large claim that may be questioned (appleton 2001). Yet we certainly see museums increasingly present in the mass media, with stories often sparking intensive campaigns: urging the ‘nation’ to save ‘our’ treasures such as raphael’s ‘Madonna of the Pinks’ for example in the uK and generally to be more ‘family friendly’ – both calls meeting high degrees of success (rCMg 2007; Birkett 2006). alongside this public attention, the academic literature on museology continues to expand at a rapid pace to serve the increasing demand for places on degree courses in museum related studies, as well as the changing needs of the profession over the last two decades since Peter Vergo called for a ‘radical re-examination of the role of museums’ or a ‘new museology’ (Vergo 1989: 3; Macdonald 2006, 1996: 8).

Learning at the Museum Frontiers: Identity, Race and Power bridges these public professional and academic worlds by joining the academic texts on museology with praxis, that is my own theoretically grounded educational work in the field and at the borderlands beyond the walls of the museum building. I draw on specific examples largely from my 10 year period as Head of Formal education at the horniman Museum, in south London, working primarily with the notable and nationally designated anthropology collection of material culture from sub-saharan africa. this personal focus highlights vital issues of relevance to museums around the world, such as the contested ownership of cultural property and the representation of indigenous knowledge, which have recently become the subject of much public debate and interest in the professional, academic and general press (simpson 1996; Kreps 2003).

Thus while the book interrogates significant themes that I have grappled with at a local level and which are evident in the title, it considers these key ideas throughout from international perspectives and aims to show the wider relevance of an audience-focused learning lens beyond the UK. I shall now briefly elucidate the key themes of the book: power, learning, race and ‘frontiers’.

Power. i contend the museum has in part a history of power. Museums have demonstrated the power of wealth and privilege – of the church, the king and the merchant since their inception, which in the Western world can be traced to fifteenth-century Florence, when the Medici family came to prominence and established their Palace (hooper-greenhill 1992; Bennett 1995). a new power – of the nation and the citizen – can be traced to the establishment at the end of the eighteenth century, with the French revolution and the formation from the princely collection of the Louvre in 1789, to ‘stand for the republic and its ideal of equality’ (duncan 1995: 35). the historical power of the museum can be seen not only to confirm conventional social hierarchies, but also to mark the overturning of older orders of control, and this would appear to lie at the heart of the widespread and continuing growth reported by unesCo (the united nations educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), at a staggering rate of 90 percent since 1946 (unesCo 1995: 184).

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Learning at the Museum Frontiers4

in today’s age of globalisation, museums around the world retain the older powers of treasure house, place of knowledge, sanctuary and shrine, in combination with a newer role as a forum and a vital role in democracy, which it is a central concern to examine in this book. While this democratic exchange can spark bitter controversy, since the museum in the socio-cultural landscape of the twenty-first century can be perceived as an icon of western colonialism in particular contexts, this effect is often in contradistinction to curatorial intentions. For example at the royal ontario Museum’s exhibition Into the Heart of Africa, where african Canadians protested against the museum as a storehouse of imperial loot, tainted by a colonial past, an anachronism, and at the smithsonian where the Enola Gay was viewed as of no use or even a hindrance in developing a cohesive community (Philip 1994; reigel 1996; schildkrout 1991; gieryn 1998). Learning at the Museum Frontiers argues the opposite. the museum, as it will show, has the potential to function as a ‘frontier’: a zone where learning is created, new identities are forged; new connections are made between disparate groups and their own histories (Philip 1992). in some cases, collections are shown to have a new and more positive power: to help disadvantaged groups, to raise self-esteem and even to challenge racism by progressing learning.

Learning is a major theme and thread running through the book. Currently in the uK, education in the museum is widely distinguished by a focus on the learner, with the department of museum education often renamed the department of museum learning and the education policy renamed learning policy. this practice mirrors the child-centred or learner-centred approaches to education long pioneered notably by John dewey and Paulo Freire, which challenged views of education as a ladder with incremental steps of knowledge that must be acquired and measured by testing at various stages (dewey 1968; Freire 1985, 1996, 1998). Learning for dewey and Freire emphasises individual potential and takes metaphors from the garden – nourishment, growth, blossoming. this is distinct from the approach adopted by more conservatively minded educators, whose major concern lies with the authority of the professional educator and takes metaphors from the marketplace – the banking system, competition, assessment. i approve the direction towards learning in the museum today, which clearly does not denigrate the vital role of the museum educator. Contrariwise, the educator works hard building bridges that close the knowledge gap between the museum and the museum visitor; addressing the complex issues of diversity and developing theoretically grounded and creative approaches to learning with new audiences.

Furthermore, in the museum recent terminological changes most importantly reflect a whole museum approach to the visitor learning experience. The V&A (Victoria and albert Museum) is one prime examples of the education department responsible for driving education policy and strategy throughout the whole museum since the early 1990s (<http://www.vam.ac.uk> accessed on 30.11.2008). The V&A operates with a broad definition of learning:

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Introduction: The Spatial Politics of the Museum Frontiers 5

Learning is a process of active engagement with experience; it is what people do when they want to make sense of the world. it may involve the development or deepening of skills, knowledge, understanding, awareness, values, ideas and feelings, or an increase in the capacity to reflect. Effective learning leads to change, development and the desire to learn more. (<http://www.inspiringlearningforall. gov.uk> accessed on 30.11.2008)

this view of learning, in the context of the museum, vitally places the learner at the heart of provision. it recognises that since different people have preferred styles of learning they can be engaged in the learning process in diverse ways with a variety of stimuli throughout their lives – literally from the cradle to the grave (<http://www.inspiringlearningforall.gov.uk> accessed on 30.11.2008).

Race. While it can be argued that the ‘inspiring’ definition does not pay sufficient attention to the socio-political context of learning – the economic poverty and racism in society, which prevents all our children from flourishing and developing their full potential – with its emphasis on lifelong learning it is especially helpful for museum educators concerned with inclusion in general and antiracism in particular, since it prioritises a place for individuals who have not achieved according to the usual timings through the school system. in the uK a disproportionate number of Black children are included in this group as Baroness Catherine ashton, Parliamentary undersecretary of state for early Years and schools standards notes, in the report of the 2002 conference, Towards a Vision of Excellence: London schools and the Black Child.

We cannot ignore the fact that the education service as a whole is clearly still not meeting the needs of many black children. there has been some recent improvement, but it remains the case that black pupils are more likely than white pupils to be excluded from school, and are half as likely to leave school with five a-C gCses as their peers from some of the groups. the position for our black boys is even more worrying. (ashton 2002: 11)

It is almost 30 years since Rampton first highlighted the ‘under-achievement’ of african Caribbean pupils in uK schools, which in recent government reports is seen to persist today (rampton 1981; scarman 1981: 9, 1996; gillborn and gipps 1996; ashton 2002). in Learning at the Museum Frontiers i contend that the museum can help to tackle this problem, by taking the responsibility to examine our ‘policies and methods’ for signs of the ‘institutionalised racism’ such as that which the Macpherson report uncovered when investigating the racist murder of the teenager stephen Lawrence in south London (Macpherson 1999: 6.18). Macpherson follows Stokely Carmichael in defining institutional racism as originating ‘in the operation of anti-black attitudes and practice’, which he underlines as playing a role in this failure of society (Macpherson 1999: 6.22). Following Macpherson, multiethnic collaboration is key to success here. Collaborative case study examples demonstrate the need for a multiethnic team,

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Learning at the Museum Frontiers6

‘visibly committed to antiracism’, to both develop and deliver the museum/school curriculum jointly (Gillborn and Gipps 1996). Specifically case study collaboration with Black school and university educators, creative writers, musicians and storytellers is seen to enable more creative approaches to education and learning as a useful part of antiracism at the museum frontiers.

throughout the museum case studies presented, practical ideas are shown to reinforce the recommendations of reports such as Macpherson’s in the uK, as well as global initiatives that also highlight the need for institutions to form alliances and tackle injustice, such as the international Convention on the rights of the Child (CrC) 1989, where certain articles highlight basic human rights and responsibilities. For example the right ‘to preserve identity, including nationality, name and family relations’ (article 8); the right to ‘freedom of expression … either orally, in writing … in the form of art or through any other medium of the child’s choice’ (article 13); and the right of ‘ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities or persons of indigenous origin … to enjoy his or her own culture, to profess and practice his or her own religion, or to use his or her own language’ (article 30) which are vital to all museum collaboration as will become clear in subsequent chapters (<http://uniCeF> accessed on 29.11.2008). these tenets are crucial to new ways of working at the museum frontiers.

the last of the major themes running through this book is the notion of the museum ‘frontier’. it is vital to the book’s antiracist intention. the ‘frontiers’ refers to an effective sharing of ideas and the development of programmes both inside and outside of the Museum. it is elucidated within ‘feminist-hermeneutics’ that brings together distinct viewpoints. gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics helps us to understand how in a ‘fusion of horizons’ – the museum visitor’s and the museum object’s – ‘meaning’ or sense is made in a process of dialogical exchange, which is akin to deep respectful conversation. to engage in such dialogue the ‘partners’ in the exchange need to regard each other as equals, in terms of ‘i’ meeting ‘thou’, which demands a recognition of individual ‘prejudices’ or prejudgements that inevitably arise from specific histories or ‘traditions’ (Gadamer 1981). It is only by acknowledging our historical prejudices and traditions in the ‘i-thou’ dialogue, which can ‘fuse our horizons’ in understanding that future possibilities may be expanded. additionally gadamer’s privileging language use in ways that echo Wittgenstein is important for progressing understanding and learning in the museum, similarly employing the concept of ‘play’ and ‘language games’ or understanding as a ‘linguistic event, a game with words’ (gadamer 1981: 446-7; Wittgenstein 1974). he also crucially highlights the lifelong and life-wide nature of understanding when he states ‘language games are where we, as learners – and when do we cease to be that? – rise to the understanding of the world’. Perhaps most critically he stakes a ‘claim to special humane significance’ for creatively entering the play of word games, which he highlights as ‘a discipline of questioning and research, a discipline that guarantees truth’ (gadamer 1981: 447).

While gadamer stoutly re-values the truth-telling of the arts and importantly defends subjectivity, noting the ‘reflective appropriation’ of tradition, rather than

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Introduction: The Spatial Politics of the Museum Frontiers 7

the dogmatic ‘scientific’ objective ‘opposition and separation’ from histories, he assumes an unproblematic access to such appropriation (gadamer 1977: 28). however these apolitical notions work well with postcolonial and Black feminist theory, which offers new ways of seeing the relationships between dominant and marginalised or disadvantaged groups (hill-Collins 1991; Lorde 1996; hooks 1992, 1994; gadamer 1980, 1981, 1986). Most importantly the concept of the museum frontiers marks a major revaluing of Black knowledge, not simply by ‘adding on’ previously marginalised or excluded discourses in the temporary exhibition space – to leave the classic canon basically preserved – but rather to locate Black perspectives right at the heart of theory building. While the notion of the museum frontiers resonates in Mary Louise Pratt and James Clifford’s idea of the museum as a ‘contact zone’ that permits connection between individuals and communities through facilitating connections – between peoples and cultures – across time and across space; it is a new theoretical positioning within feminist- hermeneutics, i argue, which in turn may more fundamentally transform the museum at the level of theory-based practice (Pratt 1992; Clifford 1999: 435-457). this distinction will be more fully explained in the case study examples. here i offer Figure 1 to clarify these notions with reference to the collaborative research with the Caribbean Women Writer’s alliance (CWWa) and during ‘inspiration africa!’ that underpins section 1 and section 3.

Perhaps the enduring appeal of this frontier notion lies in part in the value of theory-based practice for individuals working within educational institutions, including the museum, at all levels of management. at the university of Leicester, department of Museum studies we do not attempt to impart a ‘rule book’ of essential theory for students to follow slavishly when they leave us to pursue their careers around the world, but rather attempt to nurture deeper critical thought as a vital underpinning to future ‘situated’ practice (haraway 1991b). thus, while in this book insights from the Foucauldian discourse, into the relation between space and power, might be shown to reinforce feminist-hermeneutic practice in London, england, insights from Marx, Confucius or the Prophet Mohamed ‘peace be upon him’ may well prove pertinent at other locations. the website The Spirit of Islam: Experiencing Islam through Calligraphy at the Museum of anthropology (Moa) in Vancouver, Canada provides a wonderful example of best practice – an online curriculum that consists of six lessons each providing practical, easy to use tools for educators to build their knowledge and understanding of islam while introducing students to a rich variety of related images, ideas, audio and text. Most impressively many tools are designed specifically to address issues of stereotyping (<www.moa.ubc.ca/spiritofislam/resources/educationoverview.html> accessed on 06.09.2008). this Moa achievement has built on long collaborative relationships with First nations people, which proved fruitful for representation in the museum and countered the ‘cannibalistic’ tendency to trap the ‘other’ behind ‘our’ glass case displays and frame their knowledge according to western criteria (ames 1995: 3-4).

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Learning at the Museum Frontiers8

What needs emphasising here is that theoretically grounded practice can further our understanding of how the museum has functioned hierarchically in the past and point to ways in which traditional power structures can be subverted in the present, which can benefit all our futures. In other words, the museum that traditionally marginalised or excluded certain groups such as Black women need not – through adhering to frontier practice – continue to do so. Most importantly, the strong theoretical grounding of the new ways of working and the emphasis on research can allay fears in the profession that standards will slip and vital scholarship lost, Learning at the Museum Frontiers demonstrates the contrary, a commitment to truth and an enhancement of knowledge.

in looking at these four major themes, i have been outlining some rather complex notions in the abstract, but at each chapter of Learning at the Museum Frontiers I offer specific museum examples to illustrate my argument. Since a

3. Interpretation and Understanding

progressed in the Present

I –Thou Dialogical Exchange and

Action

4. Experiences and Anomalies

Challenge Prejudices in the Present

Play of Language Games

5. Self-reflection and Change.

Openness to New Explanations and Possibilities for

Future Lives

2. At the Frontiers Horizons Fuse Histories and

Traditions in the Present

Collaborative Data Collection

1. Prejudices from Past Histories and Traditions brought to the Frontiers For

Collaboration and Programme

Design

Figure I.1 Feminist-hermeneutic research circle of interpretation and understanding

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Introduction: The Spatial Politics of the Museum Frontiers 9

number of chapters draw on the horniman Museum, London uK, perhaps it will be helpful at this early point to introduce this key field site.

A Brief History of Education at the Horniman Museum

Frederick John horniman (1835-1906) founded his collections in the second half of the nineteenth century – ‘the boom time in the establishment of museums’ (Vergo 1989: 8). Frederick entered the family tea firm at 14 years old. He married rebekah emslie at the age of 23 and moved to the site of the present-day museum, surrey house, 100 London road, se23, from where he also took on the duties of a Liberal MP for Falmouth and Penryn (1895-1904). his collections were displayed and shared with visitors to surrey house or the ‘surrey house Museum’ as it was affectionately known in the media. in 1889 the horniman family, which included a daughter annie and a son emslie, moved their home to another house in the gardens, Surrey Mount. On Christmas Eve 1890 the objects were officially opened to the general public in the ‘horniman Free Museum’ at the London road house. the Museum was initially opened from 2.00-9.00pm on Wednesdays and saturdays with Mr Watkins employed as the naturalist and Mr Quick employed as Curator. richard Quick was originally trained as an artist and his efforts to impose a rational order onto Frederick’s collections largely consisted of constructing huge scrapbooks, where he pasted bills, letters and his own sketches of recent acquisitions. he speaks of aesthetics: ‘rearranging’ and ‘relining’ certain display cases ‘with a light green paper, which is found to make a good background’ (annual report 1896: 9).

Fred was not an academic university-educated scholar but a passionate collector of ‘curios’ as they were called at the time and purchased vast numbers from friends in the missionary and colonial services (duncan 1972: 3-6). according to nicky Levell, Frederick had amassed approximately 7,920 objects by 1901 (Levell 1997). the breadth and diversity of objects he desired and his ‘method’ of collection is explained in a letter Mrs Keddie wrote to richard Quick in 1896, from gaya Bengal. she states. ‘Mr horniman has asked me to send a lot of curiosities. … he said all sorts of things’ (Quick 1896: 45). Perhaps his business eye attracted him to the diversity of objects, which we see him warmly lampooned with in media cartoons (see Plate 1).

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Learning at the Museum Frontiers10

Plate 1 Tea traits: Hornimania. Media cartoon of Fred Horniman dressed in Chinese costume near one of the tea chests, from which the family fortune derived, and surrounded by a wealth of ‘Oriental’ and other ‘curios’, including the butterfly originally discovered in his collection and named after him Source: © Horniman Museum, cuttings file, 1888-1891.

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Introduction: The Spatial Politics of the Museum Frontiers 11

the richness of these collections ranging from a spanish torture chair (a fake), mummy hands, human skeletons and gods, elizabethan, african and Japanese rooms as well as the special displays of live creatures including a pair of live bears and an east african monkey called nellie – certainly proved tremendously popular with the public. Plate 2 shows Frederick and rebeka horniman (second and forth from left) with two friends and the curators Quick and Watkins (third and sixth from left) in the ‘african and Japanese room’ or ethnographical saloon of the Surrey House Museum in 1892. Quick’s first Annual Report of 1891 notes the museum made ‘arrangements for the reception of schools, societies and Clubs, in large and small numbers’. From 1891-1892, a ‘total attendance of 1,070’ individuals from 41 institutions, took advantage of the ‘Free’ admittance, and ‘catalogue guide’ which was ‘supplied gratis’ (annual report 1892: 8). horniman’s generous and enthusiastic nature is evident in the regular invitations he extended to children from the local board schools and orphanages, to attend organised events and activities such as races in his spacious grounds. For example on 6 July 1893 ‘about 100 children [from 4 local orphanages] … were shown over the museum, and afterwards passed onto the lawn at the back, where lemonade and buns were discussed, and greatly appreciated’ (annual report 1893: 7). Plate 3 shows richard’s Quick’s children posing with parts of the collection as they might with toys at the zoo and may hint at the tactile multisensory approaches adopted by horniman and Quick at this time – a theme i return to in section 3.

Plate 2 Ethnographical saloon of the Surrey House Museum c. 1982 showing Frederick Horniman with wife Rebeka, friends and colleagues Source: © horniman Museum.

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Learning at the Museum Frontiers12

in 1897, the diamond Jubilee Year of Queen Victoria, 90,383 people visited the horniman Free Museum and 120,210 visited the gardens. Frederick was inspired to commission a purpose-built museum in 1898. two years later harrison townsend’s art-nouveau design in doulting stone, with anning-Bell’s decorative mosaic panel adorning the entrance, was completed at a cost of about £40,000. On 1 May 1901, in an act of great benevolence the Museum was officially given as a gift to ‘the people of London for ever, as a free museum, for their recreation, instruction and enjoyment’, according to the inscription on the entrance plaque which expresses an emphasis on the twin educational and recreational functions of his museum. Plate 4 shows the new museum. horniman states as his aim for the collections, to: ‘interest and inform others who may not have had the opportunity to visit other places’, illustrating a democratic concern for the educational potential of the objects and a liberal view that education may lead people to a better life (annual report 1901: 4).

Plate 3 Curator Richard Quick’s children, Richard and Louise, posing with parts of the collection c. 1901 Source: © horniman Museum.

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Introduction: The Spatial Politics of the Museum Frontiers 13

Plate 4 Entrance to the Horniman Museum c. 1901, showing the original building with the clock tower Source: © horniman Museum.

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Learning at the Museum Frontiers14

the London County Council were responsible for administering horniman’s bequest and immediately enlisted dr alfred Cort haddon, an esteemed anthropologist from Cambridge university as advisory Curator (1902-1915), and dr herbert spencer harrison as resident Curator (1904-1937). haddon was concerned to make ‘the museum an educational centre of great value, as well as a place of recreation’ and began to organise the ethnographic artifacts according to the new ‘scientific’ principles of anthropology (Duncan 1972: 14; L.C.C. Report 1903). this science applied darwin’s biological theory of organic evolution to account for the different social structures around the world. the technical achievements of societies were regarded as manifest in the products of their material culture and this provided evidence of their position on the social evolutionary scale: from the most advanced and civilised or european societies, to the most ‘primitive’ and least technically accomplished or non-european societies. Plate 5 shows the comparative displays in the south hall, 1904.

haddon and harrison who were originally trained as biologists rapidly transformed the displays in accordance with the evolutionary thought which general Pitt rivers was developing at this time, whereby ‘the privileged evidence was to be that based on the comparison of artefacts’ (Chapman 1984: 22). a popular series of saturday Lectures and handbooks on the collections reinforced the museum’s new educational message of rational classification from an evolutionary perspective.

Plate 5 Comparative displays of material culture c. 1901 Source: © horniman Museum.

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Introduction: The Spatial Politics of the Museum Frontiers 15

at this time the Curator’s educational programmes for adult visitors perfectly complemented the museum display. alongside this adult service an L.C.C. appointed supply teacher organised school visits to the museum and arranged for the ‘instruction’ of school pupils, until January 1949 when a full-time teacher was seconded from the permanent teaching service of the L.C.C.

in the 1950s the museum teacher worked with the schoolchildren and their class-teachers in a small room off the north hall. the room was quite inadequate; lacking proper storage and display space for the children’s work but the service grew in response to demand and 18,619 pupils attended the museum as part of a school visit in 1968. These school visitor figures led to the construction of a two storey education Centre and the appointment of a second full-time teacher in 1969. the education Centre provided excellent facilities for: art and craft work including a pottery kiln, object handling and storage, lavatories, a lunchroom and a cloakroom. a reputation for innovative educational activities with museum objects grew but the work of the museum teacher was isolated from the development of the museum displays; a situation which was exacerbated by the different salaries and conditions of employment for curators and teachers.

throughout the 1970s and 1980s the education department grew under the parallel leadership of Mary Mellors for the formal (school and colleges) sector and dr elizabeth goodhew for the informal (community) sector. While there was no tradition for Mellors and goodhew to work exclusively on exhibitions they were increasingly seen as vital audience advocates in the 1990s by the directors richard Boston, Mike houlihan and Janet Vitmayer who ensured a place for educational staff on upcoming exhibition teams. alongside this role the education department worked closely from the horniman collections and ensured the new programmes they initiated were relevant to local audience needs through direct and long-term two-way collaboration with representatives, serving on school councils for example. they held a dedicated budget for their work and set aside a proportion to maintain and expand the handling collections, through the active field research of curatorial teams from the ethnography, musical instruments and natural history departments. thus ethnographic displays changed over these years with some wonderful temporary exhibitions curated by Keith nicklin, Ken teague and natalie tobert (Yoruba 1991; Patterns of Life 1991; sacred Lands devoted Lives 1994) from the ethnographic department, although an overriding presentation of ‘cultural otherness’ remained in the museum as a whole until the late 1990s.

in 1994 severe subsidence was discovered in the south hall and a major programme of renovation was undertaken as a matter of urgency with heritage Lottery Funding (hLF). horniman was most fortunate to secure anthony shelton as the head of anthropology to progress the intellectual concept behind the development of two new exhibitions in both the south hall and the old Lecture theatre. shelton’s original conception was for a contrast between the two galleries An A-Z of Collectors and African Worlds, which were designed to engage in a visual dialogue with each other. i regard this work as a notable ‘exhibition experiment’ and return to a detailed appraisal of the African Worlds exhibition

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Learning at the Museum Frontiers16

at section 2 (Macdonald and Basu 2006). Before proceeding, it will be helpful to outline the whole structure and the key themes readers will encounter in Learning at the Museum Frontiers.

Structure and Themes

Learning at the Museum Frontiers is organised into three broad sections and six chapters, with this introduction and a conclusion. the opening section 1 deals with the spatial politics of race, knowledge and truth in the museum. this section establishes the philosophical, political and social framework of the book. section 1 provides an overview of museum histories and the problematic relation of truth and knowledge in the imperial, colonial and postcolonial museum context with reference to both the tangible and the intangible heritage of global communities. the material culture that underpins the dialogue here includes contemporary creative responses to objects taken as war loot from nigeria in 1897, the Benin bronzes and maternity sculpture collected by anthropological fieldwork in the early 1900s, which is housed in the African Worlds exhibition at horniman in the uK. objects such as these are seen to raise new voices and visibilities at the museum frontiers; exemplifying collaborative practice and polyvocality (shelton 2000).

First, Chapter 1, Race: Repositioning and Revaluing Cultural Heritage, investigates the stubborn persistence of the discredited notion of ‘race’, and the relationship of racialised ideas with enlightenment perspectives on truth and knowledge that linger in the museum context. Chapter 1 also considers post- colonial challenges to the racist fixing of meaning by ‘us’ in Western museum displays of ‘them’ the ethnographic other, against the historico-political background of thinking on ‘race’. this chapter addresses controversy arising from racist viewpoints constructed by the european ‘self’ on the Black and oriental ‘other’, in both traditional and more recent exhibitions. it explores the changing boundaries of ‘Blackness’ and ‘ethnicities’ with reference to Jews, gypsies and Poles and critiques both multicultural and antiracist responses to this ‘othering’ (Back and solomos 2000; Young 2001; gilroy 1994a, 1994b; Morrison 1990, 1994). the contested histories of contemporary world art and culture are explored in the light of the ‘art/artifact’ and ‘primitivism’ debates through strategies underpinning seminal exhibition including African Worlds (Vogel 1988; Philip 1992; shelton 2000; arinze 2000).

then, in Chapter 2, Space: The Museum and the New Spatial Politics of the Frontiers, my long-term collaborative research with the Caribbean Women Writer’s alliance (CWWa) is outlined with reference to some notes on methodology and the development of third or ‘liminal’ museum spaces of ‘enunciation’ within diaspora and hybridity theory (Bhabha 1994; hall 1994, 1996; said 1985, 1993). this chapter explores the specific contribution of Black women’s writing to engage wider museum audiences including those in danger of disaffection, by working creatively to counter the dominant discourses of deficiency. Hill-Collins and Morrison are

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notable among key figures here in revaluing African ethical perspectives. For example they point us to the possibility of employing new metaphors that might progress learning at the borderlands of cultures and spaces (hill-Collins 1991; Morrison 1988, 1993; hooks 1992, 1994; Lorde 1996). Marlene norbese Philip’s attention to sensual ways of knowing and finding expression in the Caribbean voice is also important in marking the potential for new theoretical relationships; specifically how the ‘I and I’ dialogue within Rastafarianism pertinently echoes gadamer’s concept of ‘i and thou’ in conversation (Philip 1993; gadamer 1981). Finally addressing issues surrounding enslavement and the abolition of the slave trade are seen to be vital for collaborative practice in the uK and in american Plantation Museums (anim-addo 1998; eichstedt and small 2002).

overall in this opening section, attention is drawn to developing a respectful dialogical space for the ‘citizen’ according to the tenets of feminist-hermeneutics, which is shown to empower the socially excluded to take action in the world outside of the museum. essentially this new location of dialogue provides an opportunity to counter the pernicious influence of the media, which too often shows the starving ‘primitive’ african. respectful dialogical exchange permits the taken for granted notions about oneself and other people to be questioned, limiting self-concepts to be debated, and new hopes and dreams for a brighter future to be explored. taken together chapters one and two suggest the need for emancipatory research and liberatory praxis, and address specific themes that contribute to the extension of this discussion in section 2.

the two chapters in the second section of the book, Including New Voices and Forms of Practice, demonstrate how the passive view of the Black person, as objectively framed in traditional exhibitions, can be further transformed in ways that go far beyond the subtle subversions of knowledge, which can be achieved fleetingly through: workshops and temporary intellectual collaboration as in the uK and usa Plantation examples. the discussion is extended here to Europe and Africa, with specific reference to more intensive work undertaken by museums in sweden and south africa, where the struggle for stronger permanent transformation through structural changes to the management systems, with indigenous and diverse community groups taking greater control of the museum space is evident.

in Chapter 3, Power: Inserting New Visibilities in the Museum Margins, i consider instances of museum exhibitions which challenge our idea of what a museum is and what it might be, when there is a determination to flatten the hierarchical lines of power in the management structure from the notion of ‘poetics and politics’ (Karp and Lavine 1991). this chapter explores detailed artist interventions into exhibition work and intensive theoretical collaboration over museum displays that displace absolute curatorial authority. the discussion focuses on the remarkable Museum of World Culture (MWC), in göteborg, sweden that highlights issues of contemporary global concern through exhibition and artist installation, for example the HIV-AIDS exhibition and Fred Wilson’s installation Dwelling of the Demons. additionally i give an overview of the Voices from a

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Global Africa gallery, which features historical voices of oppression and resistance as well as contemporary voices from local people with roots in the horn of africa and Paul gilroy’s attention to Bob Marley. i argue that the imaginative effort at MWC permits a vast increase in intellectual and physical access to cultures and a great widening of participation in the museum.

Chapter 4, Control: Shifting Relationships in the Whole Museum, focuses on south africa to consider the historical period from the end of the twentieth century, which saw more dramatic shifts in the power structures of the museum. indigenous groups claimed the right to their land and to democratic government. they also asserted the just claim to fully represent themselves within their own community museums where newly empowered management teams pointed to the possibility of raising controversial issues of ownership and contested histories in apartheid within a new framing of knowledge throughout the whole museum. Difficult material and troubled histories, previously hidden in traditional displays or basement stores could now be highlighted in a non-tokenistic way by those artists, writers, and academics in permanent positions inside the museum institution. the chapter is illustrated with examples of the museum offering a site of truth, reconciliation and therapeutic healing in post-apartheid south africa. topics considered in Chapter 4 include management and community initiatives at District 6 Museum (d6M) Museum in Cape Town, South Africa, specifically creative recollection with Black elders and imaginative intergenerational work.

overall the two chapters in section 2 directly confront the charge of ‘tokenism’ to show how the imaginative effort and political commitment of museums in the twenty-first century might positively impact on the museum poetics, to progress intercultural relationships amongst international, national and local communities today. Most importantly the museums highlighted here demonstrate the possibility of working with individual and collective memories of the most terrible histories in ways that do not continue to gnaw away destructively, deep in the psyche, but impact positively and empower communities to move forward together (Morrison 1994b).

having laid new theoretical foundations rooted in antiracism and outlined some instances of museums’ power-sharing internationally, the final Section 3 of the book, Critical Collaborative Museum Pedagogy, focuses on inclusive museum education and learning, and in particular on innovative opportunities for the construction of new identities with diverse young audiences. overall, section 3 investigates new forms of practice to raise schoolchildren’s voices through a new theory-based practice seen in a project of two years duration entitled Inspiration Africa! this section emphasises the role of the museum in addressing the low self-esteem, which impacts on poor motivation and weak academic performance amongst socially excluded communities, especially Black learners. the two final chapters offer a number of success stories, which demonstrate the value of creatively re-reading traditional objects, not only to spark imagination and curiosity, but also to highlight the need for negotiating rights and responsibilities within

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a global citizenship agenda that might enhance social cohesion and intercultural understanding in contradistinction to stereotype and fear (osler 2007).

Chapter 5, Identity: Motivation and Self-esteem, explores the roots of Black underachievement as well diverse ranges of holistic mind and body museum approaches, to raise self-esteem, motivation and ‘flow learning’ (Csikszentmihalyi 1995; Falk and dierking 2000; hein 1999). the objects, which are central to the discussion here, revolve around material culture displayed at horniman including the haitian shrine and the igbo ijeli mask. these objects are utilised innovatively in writing, dramatic telling and performing of new identities and new stories, in collaboration with writers, storytellers and musicians. With a focus on voice and language activities the chapter demonstrates how new ways of creative interpretive working can facilitate the construction of more positive, diaspora hybrid identities, so vital for audiences who experience social exclusion.

In the final Chapter 6, Towards a New Museum Pedagogy: Learning, Teaching and Impact, the learning of new museum audiences, in terms of teaching impact, is subject to evaluation. Firstly drawing on French feminism, learning is regarded as importantly an active ‘power to’ see, hear, move, and speak in the Foucauldian sense, which reinforces a constructivist museum position and a radical new museum pedagogy. next, the differing terminology in the uK and the usa to describe disabled children is closely considered. then the chapter examines the use of an ashanti stool as the focus for imaginative work on the theme of ‘respect’ with a special audience of younger learners, who have special educational needs (sen), specifically Educational and Behavioural Difficulties (EBD). Overall, Chapter 6 critically considers the idea of progressing embodied knowledge or more sensual and cross-cultural routes to knowledge. this is seen to be achieved with reference to a most disadvantaged audience by employing the ‘both and’ sensory approaches of feminist-hermeneutics at the museum frontiers, to promote active learning in contradistinction to the ‘either-or’ of binary reasoning.

taken together these two chapters outlining ‘Inspiration Africa!’ at the frontiers of the horniman Museum develops a respectful dialogical space, where socially excluded individuals and groups, too often Black youth, might become citizens and empowered to take action in the world outside of the museum. essentially this new location of dialogue is seen to provide an opportunity to counter the influence of the media that perpetuates negative ideas of Black people, such as weak-mindedness and criminality.

then the concluding chapter draws the common threads of the six chapters, covering the learning of diverse audiences at three continents, together. overall i argue it is the museums promoting an open yet respectful dialogical space, one that shares characteristics of my own feminist-hermeneutic praxis, which progresses notions of democracy and global citizenship. the strengthening and expanding of the relationship between museums and communities through questioning traditional cultural authorities and reasserting new power structures and identities is shown to be a principal theme of the book and one of the most urgent concerns for contemporary museums. through museums, the citizen may honestly examine

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taken for granted notions about other people and oneself, subject limiting self- concepts to rigorous debate, and imaginative interpretation; then new hopes and dreams for a brighter future may be explored.

The conclusion further demonstrates and justifies the value of creative collaboration at the museum frontiers for diverse audiences. taken as a whole the book illustrates a new praxis that highlights both the differences and the similarities between and within seemingly diverse or unified groups of people; thereby agreeing with gupta and Fergusson’s point that the distance between rich people in different continents is often closer than that between ‘different’ classes in ‘same’ city (gupta and Ferguson 2002). overall the book not only addresses the ways in which factors of class, gender, race, disability and sexuality intersect within fields of power, but also points to helpful ways of empowering disadvantaged peoples by re-analysing certain sorts of negative experiences that have been felt in the mind and the body and result in dis-ease (trinh 1989).

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