In 2018, The University of the West Indies and The Barbados Museum & Historical Society embarked ... more In 2018, The University of the West Indies and The Barbados Museum & Historical Society embarked on a project to facilitate a community-led composite history of the Caribbean migratory experience to Britain. This was the Museum’s first attempt at an intentional large scale community collaboration across the diaspora. The resulting outputs - the Virtual Museum of Caribbean Migration and Memory and The Enigma of Arrival: The Politics and Poetics of Caribbean Migration to Britain, a rare Caribbean-based travelling exhibition on post-war migration from the Caribbean territories to Britain and the subsequent post-independence rejection of Caribbean migrants, and the process which generated them, are models for how Caribbean museums with global communities and audiences can incorporate an inclusive practice model. This paper chronicles how the museum has evolved from small community interventions and collaborations to this major project as examples of a “community of curatorial practice” ...
Latin American and Caribbean Perspectives on the New Museum Definition, 2022
Defining what a museum is or what it is not depends on socio-cultural context, historical policy,... more Defining what a museum is or what it is not depends on socio-cultural context, historical policy, and infrastructural development as well as the perception of practitioners and the communities they hope to serve. Unearthing and articulating trajectories that definitions of the museum have taken over time, however, is far more challenging for the Caribbean, which broadly mapped, includes islands and Caribbean coastal regions covering four European linguistic groups - Dutch, English, French and Spanish. Our similar histories in indigenous habitation, enslavement, emancipation, and colonialisation are disrupted by diverse political statuses as well as differing narratives on the evolution of museums. This is further made difficult by the silences in global literature by Caribbean-based practitioners on approaches to museology from the region. The Museums Association of the Caribbean in partnership with ICOM Barbados as part of the ICOFOM LAC project: Latin American and Caribbean Perspectives for Discussion on the New Museum Definition established a subcommittee to bring Caribbean voices into this global discussion. In particular, the nuanced way in which “what a museum is” has been documented in Caribbean circumstances across the region, does not always conform to traditional modes of theorising within museology. This multi-authored paper discusses the methodological approach taken by the subcommittee in varying local contexts to provide a cultural and linguistically inclusive approach to mapping definitions of museums in the Caribbean basin. It aims to contribute to the discussion of a new museum definition by ICOM Define. It will explore some of the challenges and insights into investigating Caribbean museums across linguistic and cultural borders and provide the preliminary findings of the MAC-ICOM Barbados team.
Abstract Insurgents: Redefining Rebellion in Barbados opened at the Barbados Museum & Histori... more Abstract Insurgents: Redefining Rebellion in Barbados opened at the Barbados Museum & Historical Society (BMHS) on 8 March 2019. Curated by Saamiya Cumberbatch of the Barbados Youth Development Council, Ronelle King of Life in Leggings: Caribbean Alliance Against Gender Based Violence, and Natalie McGuire-Batson of the BMHS, this exhibition involved the design and development of an inclusive space to highlight the Barbadian activists as proactive instigators of social change. The interactive exhibition analysed historical instances of resistance, from plantation rebellion to labour and social riots, as well as contemporary sites of activism for Barbadian civil rights, with a particular focus on women as leaders of freedom fighting. The exhibition was spurred by a desire among the communities of Life in Leggings: Caribbean Alliance Against Gender Based Violence and the Barbados Youth Development Council to address the stereotype that Barbadians are passive when it comes to acts of resistance. The majority of its content was contributed by activist communities, whether through their stories or artefacts, and displays were formatted to be accessible to visitors with all types of physical and learning abilities. Public participation was also key, with exhibition content including contributions from visitors in a variety of mediums, from written feedback to a device allowing visitors to video-log ideas around protest in Barbados. Assessing the project's approaches to exhibition design, community-led content, and visitor participation, this article interrogates how Insurgents: Redefining Rebellion in Barbados contributes to the development of multi-vocal museological frameworks in the Caribbean, and representationally repositions women as leaders working at the forefront of freedom fighting in Barbados.
In 2018, The University of the West Indies (UWI) and The Barbados Museum & Historical Society (BM... more In 2018, The University of the West Indies (UWI) and The Barbados Museum & Historical Society (BMHS) with funding support from EU-LAC MUSEUMS, embarked on a project coordinated by the University of St. Andrews (USTAN) to facilitate a community-led composite history, of the Caribbean migratory experience to Britain, and its role in multi-regional exchanges. The Enigma of Arrival: The Politics and Poetics of Caribbean Migration to Britain, is significant as a rare Caribbean-based exhibition on post war migration from the Caribbean territories to Britain and then the subsequent post-independence rejection of Caribbean migrants. This collaborative effort was an attempt to record and "publish" a missing or "silenced" part of our shared Caribbean history. The exhibit utilized a community of curatorial practice through a combination of multi-vocal, co-curatorial methods with "poetics" – language and cultural expressions through literature, music, theatre and v...
The Journal of the Barbados Museum & Historical Society, 2020
In 2018, The University of the West Indies (UWI) and The Barbados Museum & Historical Society (BM... more In 2018, The University of the West Indies (UWI) and The Barbados Museum & Historical Society (BMHS) with funding support from EU-LAC MUSEUMS, embarked on a project coordinated by the University of St. Andrews (USTAN) to facilitate a community-led composite history, of the Caribbean migratory experience to Britain, and its role in multi-regional exchanges. The Enigma of Arrival: The Politics and Poetics of Caribbean Migration to Britain, is significant as a rare Caribbean-based exhibition on post war migration from the Caribbean territories to Britain and then the subsequent post-independence rejection of Caribbean migrants. This collaborative effort was an attempt to record and "publish" a missing or "silenced" part of our shared Caribbean history. The exhibit utilized a community of curatorial practice through a combination of multi-vocal, co-curatorial methods with "poetics"-language and cultural expressions through literature, music, theatre and visual art based on primary and secondary research. This paper will chronicle and examine the conceptualization, research and development of the exhibition and its content as it pertains to several themes explored in Caribbean history, and the effectiveness of using a community of curatorial practice in the exhibition methodology.
The Barbados Museum & Historical Society (BMHS), Life in Leggings: Caribbean Alliance Against Gen... more The Barbados Museum & Historical Society (BMHS), Life in Leggings: Caribbean Alliance Against Gender Based Violence, and the Barbados Youth Development Council (BYDC) designed and developed a space to highlight the activism of Barbadians as proactive instigators of social change. Insurgents: Redefining Rebellion in Barbados was an interactive exhibition analysing historical instances of resistance—from plantation rebellion to labour and social riots—as well as contemporary sites of activism for Barbadian civil rights. This article outlines the methodology used within the exhibition, serving as an inquiry into the role the exhibition plays in sharing the story of women at the forefront of activism in Barbados.
In 2018, The University of the West Indies and The Barbados Museum & Historical Society embarked ... more In 2018, The University of the West Indies and The Barbados Museum & Historical Society embarked on a project to facilitate a community-led composite history of the Caribbean migratory experience to Britain. This was the Museum’s first attempt at an intentional large scale community collaboration across the diaspora. The resulting outputs - the Virtual Museum of Caribbean Migration and Memory and The Enigma of Arrival: The Politics and Poetics of Caribbean Migration to Britain, a rare Caribbean-based travelling exhibition on post-war migration from the Caribbean territories to Britain and the subsequent post-independence rejection of Caribbean migrants, and the process which generated them, are models for how Caribbean museums with global communities and audiences can incorporate an inclusive practice model. This paper chronicles how the museum has evolved from small community interventions and collaborations to this major project as examples of a “community of curatorial practice” ...
Latin American and Caribbean Perspectives on the New Museum Definition, 2022
Defining what a museum is or what it is not depends on socio-cultural context, historical policy,... more Defining what a museum is or what it is not depends on socio-cultural context, historical policy, and infrastructural development as well as the perception of practitioners and the communities they hope to serve. Unearthing and articulating trajectories that definitions of the museum have taken over time, however, is far more challenging for the Caribbean, which broadly mapped, includes islands and Caribbean coastal regions covering four European linguistic groups - Dutch, English, French and Spanish. Our similar histories in indigenous habitation, enslavement, emancipation, and colonialisation are disrupted by diverse political statuses as well as differing narratives on the evolution of museums. This is further made difficult by the silences in global literature by Caribbean-based practitioners on approaches to museology from the region. The Museums Association of the Caribbean in partnership with ICOM Barbados as part of the ICOFOM LAC project: Latin American and Caribbean Perspectives for Discussion on the New Museum Definition established a subcommittee to bring Caribbean voices into this global discussion. In particular, the nuanced way in which “what a museum is” has been documented in Caribbean circumstances across the region, does not always conform to traditional modes of theorising within museology. This multi-authored paper discusses the methodological approach taken by the subcommittee in varying local contexts to provide a cultural and linguistically inclusive approach to mapping definitions of museums in the Caribbean basin. It aims to contribute to the discussion of a new museum definition by ICOM Define. It will explore some of the challenges and insights into investigating Caribbean museums across linguistic and cultural borders and provide the preliminary findings of the MAC-ICOM Barbados team.
Abstract Insurgents: Redefining Rebellion in Barbados opened at the Barbados Museum & Histori... more Abstract Insurgents: Redefining Rebellion in Barbados opened at the Barbados Museum & Historical Society (BMHS) on 8 March 2019. Curated by Saamiya Cumberbatch of the Barbados Youth Development Council, Ronelle King of Life in Leggings: Caribbean Alliance Against Gender Based Violence, and Natalie McGuire-Batson of the BMHS, this exhibition involved the design and development of an inclusive space to highlight the Barbadian activists as proactive instigators of social change. The interactive exhibition analysed historical instances of resistance, from plantation rebellion to labour and social riots, as well as contemporary sites of activism for Barbadian civil rights, with a particular focus on women as leaders of freedom fighting. The exhibition was spurred by a desire among the communities of Life in Leggings: Caribbean Alliance Against Gender Based Violence and the Barbados Youth Development Council to address the stereotype that Barbadians are passive when it comes to acts of resistance. The majority of its content was contributed by activist communities, whether through their stories or artefacts, and displays were formatted to be accessible to visitors with all types of physical and learning abilities. Public participation was also key, with exhibition content including contributions from visitors in a variety of mediums, from written feedback to a device allowing visitors to video-log ideas around protest in Barbados. Assessing the project's approaches to exhibition design, community-led content, and visitor participation, this article interrogates how Insurgents: Redefining Rebellion in Barbados contributes to the development of multi-vocal museological frameworks in the Caribbean, and representationally repositions women as leaders working at the forefront of freedom fighting in Barbados.
In 2018, The University of the West Indies (UWI) and The Barbados Museum & Historical Society (BM... more In 2018, The University of the West Indies (UWI) and The Barbados Museum & Historical Society (BMHS) with funding support from EU-LAC MUSEUMS, embarked on a project coordinated by the University of St. Andrews (USTAN) to facilitate a community-led composite history, of the Caribbean migratory experience to Britain, and its role in multi-regional exchanges. The Enigma of Arrival: The Politics and Poetics of Caribbean Migration to Britain, is significant as a rare Caribbean-based exhibition on post war migration from the Caribbean territories to Britain and then the subsequent post-independence rejection of Caribbean migrants. This collaborative effort was an attempt to record and "publish" a missing or "silenced" part of our shared Caribbean history. The exhibit utilized a community of curatorial practice through a combination of multi-vocal, co-curatorial methods with "poetics" – language and cultural expressions through literature, music, theatre and v...
The Journal of the Barbados Museum & Historical Society, 2020
In 2018, The University of the West Indies (UWI) and The Barbados Museum & Historical Society (BM... more In 2018, The University of the West Indies (UWI) and The Barbados Museum & Historical Society (BMHS) with funding support from EU-LAC MUSEUMS, embarked on a project coordinated by the University of St. Andrews (USTAN) to facilitate a community-led composite history, of the Caribbean migratory experience to Britain, and its role in multi-regional exchanges. The Enigma of Arrival: The Politics and Poetics of Caribbean Migration to Britain, is significant as a rare Caribbean-based exhibition on post war migration from the Caribbean territories to Britain and then the subsequent post-independence rejection of Caribbean migrants. This collaborative effort was an attempt to record and "publish" a missing or "silenced" part of our shared Caribbean history. The exhibit utilized a community of curatorial practice through a combination of multi-vocal, co-curatorial methods with "poetics"-language and cultural expressions through literature, music, theatre and visual art based on primary and secondary research. This paper will chronicle and examine the conceptualization, research and development of the exhibition and its content as it pertains to several themes explored in Caribbean history, and the effectiveness of using a community of curatorial practice in the exhibition methodology.
The Barbados Museum & Historical Society (BMHS), Life in Leggings: Caribbean Alliance Against Gen... more The Barbados Museum & Historical Society (BMHS), Life in Leggings: Caribbean Alliance Against Gender Based Violence, and the Barbados Youth Development Council (BYDC) designed and developed a space to highlight the activism of Barbadians as proactive instigators of social change. Insurgents: Redefining Rebellion in Barbados was an interactive exhibition analysing historical instances of resistance—from plantation rebellion to labour and social riots—as well as contemporary sites of activism for Barbadian civil rights. This article outlines the methodology used within the exhibition, serving as an inquiry into the role the exhibition plays in sharing the story of women at the forefront of activism in Barbados.
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Papers by Natalie McGuire
statuses as well as differing narratives on the evolution of museums. This is further made difficult by the silences in global literature by Caribbean-based practitioners on approaches to museology from the region.
The Museums Association of the Caribbean in partnership with ICOM Barbados as part of the ICOFOM LAC project: Latin American and Caribbean Perspectives for Discussion on the New Museum Definition established a subcommittee to bring Caribbean voices into this global discussion. In particular, the nuanced way in which “what a museum is” has been documented in Caribbean circumstances across the region, does not always conform to traditional modes of theorising within
museology. This multi-authored paper discusses the methodological approach taken by the subcommittee in varying local contexts to provide a cultural and linguistically inclusive approach to mapping definitions of museums in the Caribbean basin. It aims to contribute to the discussion of a new museum definition by ICOM Define. It will explore some of the challenges and insights into investigating Caribbean museums across linguistic and cultural borders and provide the preliminary findings of the MAC-ICOM Barbados team.
Barbados.
statuses as well as differing narratives on the evolution of museums. This is further made difficult by the silences in global literature by Caribbean-based practitioners on approaches to museology from the region.
The Museums Association of the Caribbean in partnership with ICOM Barbados as part of the ICOFOM LAC project: Latin American and Caribbean Perspectives for Discussion on the New Museum Definition established a subcommittee to bring Caribbean voices into this global discussion. In particular, the nuanced way in which “what a museum is” has been documented in Caribbean circumstances across the region, does not always conform to traditional modes of theorising within
museology. This multi-authored paper discusses the methodological approach taken by the subcommittee in varying local contexts to provide a cultural and linguistically inclusive approach to mapping definitions of museums in the Caribbean basin. It aims to contribute to the discussion of a new museum definition by ICOM Define. It will explore some of the challenges and insights into investigating Caribbean museums across linguistic and cultural borders and provide the preliminary findings of the MAC-ICOM Barbados team.
Barbados.