National Museums Liverpool Blog - Richard

The Rev Jesse Jackson visiting the museum in 2007. Photograph © Simon Webb

Hello there

Well since my return from Paris I have had a pretty varied couple of weeks which amongst other things included several meetings related to our forthcoming exhibition programme. It also included a visit from two judges for the European Museum of the Year award. This is a very prestigious award and goes to show just how successful ISM has been in its first year.  Hopefully this time we will be successful and I feel that the judges went away really understanding the fact that we are a museum which is at the forefront of a campaign to actively challenge present day racism and discrimination and various other injustices which exist. The shortlist is announced in early 2009.

I mentioned our exhibition programme. The plan is to have a varied range of exhibitions within the current galleries which highlight the broad subject of slavery. We are still in the planning stages but we will be shortly announcing our first exhibition which starts later this month, both a celebration and a reflection on the museum's first year. It will include information about all the milestones we have achieved (to date we have had upwards of 275,000 visitors and some very high profile visitors!) as well as the different types of responses we have had, some challenging, some thought provoking and others which are purely offensive. But we feel it is important to show the entire range of responses, positive and negative, so that we can move forward and really make the museum a tool of social change.

Other exhibitions will highlight various forms of contemporary slavery, as well as African sport and the link between natural history and slavery which uses many of the plant collections we have in National Museums Liverpool. It is an exciting programme so watch this space for further announcements.

The forthcoming week is a very interesting one, for starters I get out of the office on a few occasions (I have a great view of the Albert Dock from my office but when it is sunny it is hard being sat behind my desk!) Tomorrow I am meeting two respected local community historians to look at some archives which might be in need of being rescued from a building due to be renovated and then I go to London to visit the British Film Institute mediatheque to get some ideas for our Phase 2 resource centre. We want the resource centre to include a range of media so visits to established media facilities are really helpful. I'll let you know how it all went in my next blog post.

Remember; drop me a line if you have any comments about the International Slavery Museum.

Bye for now.  

Bonjour!

Last week I was fortunate enough to be in Paris for the launch of the Transatlantic Slavery Gallery exhibition at the UNESCO HQ. Along with Katérina Stenou, Director of the Division of Cultural Policies and Intercultural Dialogue and HE Mr Peter Landymore, Ambassador, permanent delegate of the United Kingdom to UNESCO, I said a few words. It was well attended by a number of delegates; interestingly one was a relative of the Senegalese poet and statesman Léopold Senghor who is on our Black Achievers Wall. 

Richard Benjamin with Edmond Moukala

It was a very satisfying occasion as this was the culmination of at least 12 months work by several members of National Museums Liverpool and UNESCO staff. The conception of this exhibition began when I met Edmond whilst attending a conference in London. Edmond was fully aware that the Transatlantic Slavery Gallery was closing down as a result of the International Slavery Museum opening up on 23 August 2007. A date familiar with UNESCO as it is Slavery Remembrance Day.

Up until June last year the Transatlantic Slavery Gallery in the Merseyside Maritime Museum was one of the most challenging, thought provoking and informative galleries in the world on the subject and was visited by politicians and dignitaries form most countries around the world. As such it had quality, well researched displays and information panels, of which 30 now make up this touring exhibition.

ISM is one of the newest and most highly technological museums in the world and as such there was the possibility that these panels might not be used again. But both Edmond and I agreed that this would be a great loss, especially as it is quite obvious that many museums, some which have exhibitions and displays about transatlantic slavery, do not have the resources available to them that ISM does.

Not one panel was simply packaged and sent to Paris. We went over all the panels to see whether we felt the information was still relevant and indeed accurate. Due to the professionalism and expertise of people like Tony Tibbles, in 1994 the curator but now director of the Merseyside Maritime Museum, we felt that most of the panels would still be a valuable educational tool on the subject. Along with some new panels detailing the work of ISM our learning team designed some educational materials to accompany the exhibition.

As well as being an informative exhibition on the subject of transatlantic slavery it will hopefully visit many countries and continents in the coming years. I was pleased to hear that representatives from Ghana, Serra Leone, Angola and Barbados had enquired about the exhibition.

Well I could not justify three days in Paris just for the launch so I had a very busy schedule of visiting museums and art galleries which might inspire me in some way whist planning the research and resource centre for Phase 2 of ISM.  I was particularly impressed with the Centre Pompidou and its array of stylish and very functional sections. I found the media centre to be very interesting with its simple layout and vast archive of music and art videos. I am not an art aficionado, or indeed a prude, but I was slightly embarrassed by finding myself looking at a film of the Viennese actionist artist Hermann Nitsch. Lets just say it would be shown after the watershed in the UK so I quickly fumbled with the mouse to change the film!

I also managed to visit the architectural wonder which is the Institut du Monde Arabe. It covers Arabic art and the sciences and has a large exhibition area (which had a temporary café inside serving great coffee) a museum and library. It was one of the 'Grands Projets' in the 1980s, initiated by Francois Mitterand, the French president. Other projects included new wings at the Louvre and the Musee D’Orsay.

One final observation is that all the places I visited had an entrance fee, some only a few Euros but it does add up. It made me realize that here in Liverpool we have free entrance to world class museums and art galleries unlike anywhere else in the world.

But before I left France my admiration for French innovation and architecture was severely challenged by having to spend several hours in Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport. I understand that certain low cost airlines might not be given a prime slot but to say that the terminal where you go to fly to Liverpool was dreary is an understatement. You will get a flavour of the place when I say it had a café there which made Little Chef look like The Ritz. No offence to Little Chef, I used to work at one for over two years many years ago!

Au revoir.

Left to right: Jim Moore, Richard Benjamin, Warren Perry and Bob Paynter

Hello there.

Well I visited Ireland for the second time this year but this time the South, Dublin to be precise. It was for WAC-6  which I know sounds like a 60s TV space drama but it is in fact the World Archaeological Congress. In fact come to think of it some of you might be wishing I was now going to talk about a 60s TV space drama! If not, keep reading. 

Now at first you might be thinking what is the connection between archaeology and museums? Well in the case of the International Slavery Museum we believe that archaeological research can help us further understand what life might have been like on some of the many plantations in the Americas. For instance within the Enslavement and Middle Passage Gallery we have a replica of a plantation in St Kitts where Dr Rob Philpott, Head of Archaeology here at NML has carried out fieldwork for a number of years.

I was part of a session on 'Archaeologists, Museums, Monuments and Anti-Monuments' (academics love long titles!) which I co organised with some old friends from the US, Professor Bob Paynter from UMASS and Dr Warren Perry from CCSU. I met Bob and Warren in 2002 when I was researching for my PhD in Archaeology. Bob has worked on the WEB Du Bois boyhood site for a number of years. Du Bois was a major figure who wrote The Souls of Black Folk a classic work of American literature and is quite rightly on our Black Achievers Wall. I visited a number of African American archaeological sites when I was over there; including the African Burial Ground in New York City which Warren worked on as did another session participant Michael Blakey.

I have to say that the session went really well (no heckling or people falling asleep is a good start in my book) and included some fascinating papers. One was given by Daryle Rigney, Yunggorendi First Nations Centre, Flinders University with the interesting title - 'Encountering the Common Knobby Club Rush: reconciliation, public art and whiteness'. For those of you like me who are not experts on Australian plant life a knobby club rush is a plant which grows along the coastline and was used in the paper to symbolize how indigenous cultures, like this resilient plant, did not break under the force of the prevailing wind, in this case represented by European settlers and their early encounters with the indigenous population, in an already occupied land. Truly fascinating. Another interesting few days in a consistently interesting job.

Hello there

One of the great things about my job is how incredibly varied it can be. I have frequently written about the different themed conferences I have attended, the many well known dignitaries I have met and the trips to other exciting and sometimes challenging museums. But I also get to do some curatorial work now and again, well, for an afternoon anyway!

The International Slavery Museum is part of a collaborative project with UNESCO which developed the Transatlantic Slavery gallery touring exhibition. The exhibition consists of over 30 panels which were part of the now closed Transatlantic Slavery gallery which was located up until last June in the Merseyside Maritime Museum. We have also designed some new panels for the exhibition explaining the work of the International Slavery Museum. It is a great project for two reasons in particular. Although some years old, the panels from the previous gallery are well written and informative and ideal for museums around the world who might not be able to resource new panels on the subject of transatlantic slavery. Secondly, it shows how committed we at the museum are in forging new international partnerships and links with sometimes smaller and less well resourced museums around the world, particularly in Africa.

Before the launch of the exhibition in Paris in July though the panels had to actually get there and this is where I came in! I was for an afternoon under the supervision (bossed around in my view!) of Angela Robinson - curator of transatlantic slavery here at the museum. We needed to get all the panels ready to be picked up by the specialist haulage company who would take them to Paris. This sounds easier than it was. The panels are quite heavy and needed to be carefully packed and inventoried ready for transportation. They were being stored in one of several specialist storage facilities that National Museums Liverpool has in Liverpool (I am afraid I cannot divulge the location though!).  

I have to say I was pretty excited at going behind the scenes of the organization so to speak. Not something I always have the time to do. Well we put in some hard graft as we say in Yorkshire. It is also worth stressing for those of you wanting a career in museums that it is definitely not the quaint profession that people often expect. Museums can be bustling hives of activity where most professionals in various departments have to multitask on most days... me included!

In contrast, earlier today I met with Doreen Lawrence OBE, mum of the murdered Black teenager Stephen Lawrence. Many of you will have heard of the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 and the subsequent inquiry but I also know that many younger people have not. Indeed not everyone here in Liverpool or Merseyside has heard of Anthony Walker who I spoke about in my last blog post. So it was a very poignant moment for the museum when someone as well respected and determined as Doreen Lawrence visited us. I am pleased to say she liked how we presented the subject of transatlantic slavery and its legacies in the museum. She told me about the newly opened Stephen Lawrence Centre in Deptford, South London  and we also discussed how our two organisations might collaborate in the future.

Watch this space for any developments.

Frederick Douglass mural, Falls Road, Belfast. Text reads: 'Frederick Douglas 1818-1895. Inspired by two Irishmen to escape from slavery Frederick Douglas came to Ireland during the famine. Henceforth he championed the abolition of slavery, women's rights and Irish freedom.'

Hello there

As usual I have had a very interesting and varied past couple of weeks. I attended the 'Closing of the Slave Trades: Transatlantic Perspectives' conference at Queens University, Belfast, Northern Ireland , co-sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. It was attended by museum professionals, public historians, and scholars from a variety of disciplines and institutions.  My talk focused on Phase 2 of the International Slavery Museum and the opening of the Research and Resource centre.

Even though Belfast City Centre is like many other lively European capital cities, with its grand historic buildings and trendy high street shops it is still a deeply divided city in many respects. This was highlighted when we went on a taxi tour of some of the political murals near the Falls Road, which is a largely nationalist and Catholic area. One of the murals depicted the great African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass. I, like many people from the UK, was brought up on news of the ‘Troubles’ and was happy to see the Northern Ireland peace process progress. But the remembrance gardens, the tone of the murals and most shocking for me, the imposing corrugated iron wall, often called the Peace Line, that divides large swathes of Protestant and Catholic Belfast shows there is still a long way to go before the city is free from sectarianism and intolerance.

There is also a big link, in fact a Titanic one (I could not resist!), between Belfast and Liverpool.  The Titanic was built at Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast and even though she never berthed at Liverpool she was owned by White Star Line of Liverpool. Visit the Titanic, Lusitania and the Forgotten Empress gallery at the Merseyside Maritime Museum for more information.

Another important aspect of my job is that of supporting local organizations in various campaigns against forms of injustice, inequality and indeed intolerance.  Along with a colleague I attended the Anthony Walker Foundation Festival 2008 event at Hope University. The International Slavery Museum had a stand there with information about the museum.  It was a lively and indeed poignant event. I watched a number of rappers perform very loud (do I sound old?) but meaningful performances. The aim of the event was to bring young people together from all backgrounds and to focus on positive messages. I only have the utmost respect for the Walker family, who out of the tragic loss of a son and brother has managed to start a movement which promotes togetherness rather than division.  Truly admirable.

Watch this space.

The sign reads: Atta Rainforest Camp. Iwokrama Canopy Walkway. Dedicated this day July 9 2005. To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Iwokrama International Centre founded by the Government of Guyana and the Commonwealth Secretariat. Designed and constructed by Colin Edwards and the people of the northern Rupununi.

Hello there
As I said in my previous blog I recently attended the Commonwealth Association of Museums conference in Guyana where I was fortunate enough to meet a number of museum professionals from Africa and the Caribbean.   One of them, Terry Nyambe, Assistant Keeper of Ichthyology at the Livingstone Museum in Zambia sent me the attached picture.   Terry was constantly telling us all how beautiful Zambia was and looking at the following website I agree:  http://www.zambiatourism.com/travel/places/museum.htm.

The picture also proves two things.  One that I did actually visit the rainforest and two that I am a Leeds United fan!   Not something that everyone normally brags about but to me it is more than just shouting at a group of overpaid men running around a field.  No, it is about passion, belonging and indeed heritage.  You might think these are bold statements but let me expand.  

My family history is something I am both interested in and proud.   My Guyanese and Yorkshire parents, my friends, my hometown and the environment I grew up in have shaped to a great degree my view of the world. My brother and most of my friends were Leeds fans, so it was natural for me to follow in their footsteps; it made me feel part of a larger group with a shared passion.  But Leeds United’s ground, Elland Road, in the early 80s in particular was a haven of racist abuse and bigotry, often aimed at opposing Black and Asian players and fans: http://www.kickitout.org/.  

Sometimes I would feel very uncomfortable when hundreds of people all chanted something racist but at the same time I refused to leave or walk away.   I am a firm believer that there is no place that Black and minority ethnic individuals should not be.  There are no enclaves which we should not share.   I am proud to be a Yorkshireman, and even though we were rubbish in the recent League One play offs at Wembley, I am a loyal Leeds fan.   It is part of my very rich and diverse heritage.  

It has also been very satisfying that at the very core of Leeds United teams in the past few years have been a number of Black players.  For instance, the South African player Lucas Radebe is still idolized at Leeds even though he stopped playing several years ago.   Interestingly he used to play for a team called Kaizer Chiefs in South Africa, a name I am sure is well known by many music aficionados (the band really are Leeds United supporters!). What is an uncomfortable juxtaposition though is how some people chant his name but might also come out with a racist comment.   I have not yet quite managed to get to grips with this concept.

The International Slavery Museum looks to show how people of the African Diaspora, including footballers, have shaped the world and achieved in all sorts of fields and disciplines: http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/black_achievers_wall.asp. 

For me, however illogical and infuriating it can be, watching a game of football and feeling like I have as much right to be there as anyone else, is part of that.   

Watch this space.

Hello there

Well I am pleased to announce my return to the world of blogging. The last time I wrote a blog post was way back in October. So what have I been doing since then? Well the answer is plenty!  First if all let me give you an update about the museum. We have had a fantastic response to the museum, from the public, museum professionals, academics and most importantly the local community. To date we have had upwards of 210,000 visitors. This is higher than we expected and we will hopefully exceed our annual forecast. We realise that there is still much work to do but in a way there always should be for a museum.  We aim to be receptive to ideas, comments and indeed criticisms but we truly believe we are a living and breathing museum and as such updating; revising and changing information as well as views and theories is part of that process.

Quite a lot of my time has been spent on putting together various strategies and policies for the museum.  This means that I have been having regular meetings with colleagues from various departments, as well as Angela Robinson - the curator of transatlantic slavery who is the person who looks after the museum collections. Angela quite rightly gets mad when I am sometimes referred to as the curator of the museum in the newspaper or on radio. But I always bring her a small present back from my travels to stay in her good books!

One of those policies is our new collecting policy. Not only do we aim to keep collecting archives and ephemera which relate to transatlantic slavery but we are looking to expand our collections into new areas. For instance, we already have in the museum a number of African American objects, what are often called ‘Black Americana’, objects such as prints, books, toys, games, ornaments or various household memorabilia, often produced from the 1920s through the 1950s in America. Some of these are on display in the Legacy gallery at the museum. Many of these objects depict racist stereotypical images and can be extremely offensive in their nature. We feel it is important though to highlight how these objects and images were used, and indeed tolerated, in popular recent culture.   

What we are now looking to do is increase our Black British memorabilia collections.  Again, some of these objects are very disturbing but we also aim to collect uplifting aspects of Black British life. If someone has an object that they feel we would be interested in please contact us here at the International Slavery Museum.

Another policy we have been developing is our international policy. As an internationally recognized museum we understand the need for us to build collaborations with a number of different countries, especially those who, like Britain, played a central role in transatlantic slavery. As part of this policy I was recently in Guyana for the Commonwealth Association of Museums conference on ‘Museums and Diversity’. I gave a paper titled ‘The International Slavery Museum: an active campaigner’. I wanted to draw attention in the paper not only to the fact that we want to work with museums in other countries, but how I see the museum as actively campaigning against contemporary forms of racism and discrimination as well as forms of contemporary slavery and bonded labour. This makes us an active museum, not a neutral one, and I challenge those that think we should be.

I also got to meet Dr Frank Anthony - the Minister for Culture, Youth and Sport. We talked about ways that we could link with museum and heritage institutions in Guyana, a country which we mention many times in the International Slavery Museum but which until 1966 was called British Guiana. There are many links between Liverpool and Guyana. One of them being that the family of four times Prime Minister William Gladstone owned a plantation near a town called Vreed-en-Hoop in a region of British Guiana called Demerara, a word which is now synonymous with brown sugar around the world. It was a very positive meeting and from it came an official invitation to participate in CARIFESTA.  We even managed to make the national press. The picture is probably the worst ever taken of me though!

Along with other delegates of the conference I managed to visit Iwokrama, a rainforest conservation and development centre. It aims to show how tropical forests can be conserved and sustained providing social, ecological and economic benefits to communities locally and indeed internationally.

On the second day we were told we would be going on a short hike up a very small mountain.  Alarm bells began to ring at the mention of the word mountain. Anyway, 2 hours and a lot of puffing and panting later I reached the top of Turtle Mountain. It was well worth the effort with beautiful views of pristine rainforest and the Essequibo River.

So I am pleased to say that the museum is a great success and there are some very exciting, as well as challenging, times ahead.  Thanks again to all of you who have visited the museum, and for those who have not had the chance, I hope you can make it soon.  Watch this space.

Hello there! The various presentations I mentioned in my last blog post about Black History Month, volunteers and lots of talks went really well (I was not jeered anyway). The audiences were all very different and that is one of the things I like about this job. At the Harris Museum in Preston I had to speak for 30 minutes, without using a PowerPoint to hide behind, to a mixed group with several members of the Preston Black community in the audience.  It is not a large community but incredibly varied with a fascinating history. Currently on show at the museum is an exhibition called Bitter Sweet: Legacies of Sugar and Slavery in the Caribbean until March 2008.

My last engagement was at Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. My sister Lorraine lives there (she told me not to say older sister!) so I stayed over for the weekend. On the Saturday I was fortunate enough to see Oxford United v Woking with my brother-in-law Tom and nephew Samuel (both Arsenal fans unfortunately). It was truly a battle between giants of the lower divisions (minus goals or indeed excitement).

The rest of my time was spent discussing and planning the impending havoc of my niece Cara’s 18th birthday party. Over 200 of her friends (yes, I did say 200) will be strutting their stuff until the early hours in a few weeks. A table for the oldies has been arranged at the back of the room to save her from any embarrassment.

This week has been a really interesting one. Yesterday I had the pleasure to interview Nkosinathi Biko, son of the South African activist Steve Biko, and Chief Executive Officer of the Steve Biko Foundation. He is here along with his brother and mother for an event at the Merseyside Maritime Museum this evening.

Yesterday evening I gave a talk at a Manchester Black Health Agency event to commemorate the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade act. It was very well attended and it was a pleasure to have been invited to speak. The only downside of the evening was that my train back to Liverpool broke down just outside Newton-le-Willows. I set off at 11pm. I got back to Liverpool at 2am!

Well I will sign off for now but before I do an apology to my legion of football blog fans. Last week I said Leeds United were playing Millwall. It was in fact Brighton (we won 1-0). Tomorrow is Millwall so hopefully we can keep the unbeaten run going.

Well I have been silent for over a week as I have been on leave. I went back to see my family in dear old Tadcaster. I am sure you have now all seen the fantastic website which shows you that Tadcaster is an ideal holiday location. Forget about Spain, France or the USA, save on your carbon footprint and travel to Tadcaster on the Yorkshire coastliner bus from Leeds station!

The week prior to my mini break was a really interesting one. On Monday 1 October I gave the keynote speech to open Trafford Black History Month at the Imperial War Museum North. It was a diverse audience, with local schoolchildren, civic dignitaries (I had a coffee with the mayor!) and museum professionals. I talked about the development of the International Slavery Museum as well as the need for Black History Month and indeed the teaching of Black history in schools.

On the Tuesday it was a pleasure to meet and interview Paul Robeson Jr, an advocate of the Paul Robeson Institute, and on Wednesday we held the museum’s first volunteer day. If you are interested in volunteering at the International Slavery Museum you can email Claire Holden our volunteer co-ordinator.

Yesterday I gave a talk to the St Helens Historical Society on the development of the museum. One of the most interesting aspects of my job is meeting all sorts of audiences, and so later this week I am giving several other presentations. Tomorrow at the Harris Museum in Preston on ‘Issues regarding the historical and contemporary representation of transatlantic slavery and enslavement in museums’, then on Thursday I am speaking at a seminar for the Communities and Local Government Department about the need to highlight Black history in museums and on Friday I am at Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford for a lunchtime seminar for students and staff.

So a pretty busy week. But my older sister lives in Oxford so I can stay with her and the family over the weekend which I am looking forward to.

 I’ll sign off for now but just before I go (I know my football blog info is a highlight for some people!) I have to let you know that this weekend Leeds United have the privilege of hosting Millwall at Elland Road. Should be interesting to say the least. Last Saturday we drew with Leyton Orient and missed a penalty to win in the last few minutes. Not good for my blood pressure. The highs and lows of being a football fan!

Just to prove I am a Leeds fan!

Hello all

So what have I been up to since my last blog post? Well, it has been pretty varied. Last Monday I did an interview for the Yorkshire Evening Post. I have to say that this could be seen as the pinnacle of a career for a Yorkshireman. The journalist was called John Woodcock, a very nice easy going character. He got very excited when I told him I was brought up in Tadcaster. For anyone that likes real ale then Tadcaster is the place to be brought up.

I have had to do a lot of media in the past few weeks, some good some not so good. It depends very much on the interviewer. Some are very easy going and friendly; others seem to think they are doing me a favour by talking to me. It is part of the job that has taken me a while to get used to but at the end of the day it is positive that I have the opportunity to raise the profile of the museum.

This coming week is a very exciting one for me as not only is it the start of Black History Month but I will get to meet the son of the greatly talented Paul Robeson - an actor, singer and lawyer who was unpopular with the American government in the 1930s as he visited the Soviet Union. On his return to the United States, he refused to sing to segregated audiences. I am pleased to say that Paul Robeson has been added to our Black Achievers Wall (remember, you can nominate your own Black achiever by sending me an email).

I'll sign off for now. By the way, I was in a good mood most of the week as we beat Swansea 2-0 but on Saturday we were cheated out of 2 points by a referee who sent off 2 players! Bitter, me, a Leeds fan... no way!

Just a few of the faces on the Black Achievers Wall in the International Slavery Museum

I am the one on the far right with one of our many famous visitors, the Reverend Jesse Jackson Photograph © Simon Webb

Hello fellow bloggers. This is my first journey into the technical superhighway that is blogging. I will try and be as interesting as I can but bear with me ok. It might take me a while to get into the swing of things. I have been asked to keep you updated about some of the things I do as part of my job as Head of the International Slavery Museum, and also as a Leeds United supporting vegan Yorkshireman. A strange mix if there ever was one!

The first Phase of the International Slavery Museum opened on 23 August 2007 – Slavery Remembrance Day here in Liverpool. It was hectic to say the least in the weeks up to opening but it was all worth while. The libation and cultural activities events which took place at Slavery Remembrance Day at Otterspool were very successful and grow year by year. Many of the people who attended the event then came down to Albert Dock to visit the museum.

We had approximately 2,000 visitors per day for the first five days and up until today we have in the region of 20,000 visits. The feedback has been very positive and although you will not always please everyone a museum in my view should not try to anyway. We want to provoke reaction, debate and dialogue. We might not have got everything right straight away but the museum is a living and breathing one and as such we can adapt to both public opinion and indeed the changing research and information around the subject of slavery.

I want to tell you though about one of the many presentations that I am asked to give these days. It was part of the BOUND conference at Tate Liverpool on Saturday 15 September. Phase 2 of the International Slavery Museum, which will be housed in the Dock traffic Office, the old Granada TV building, will contain a research and education centre, along with public spaces and exhibition space. As a museum we want to cover many aspects of slavery, not just transatlantic slavery, although that is still at the very core of what we are about. As such I wanted to meet professionals who worked in areas of contemporary slavery, such as Anti-Slavery International and Stop the Traffik . Working alongside partners like this I hope to make the International Slavery Museum an active participant in the combating of current forms of slavery. As Dr David Fleming – Director of National Museums Liverpool (the man on the left of Jesse Jackson in the photo above) has said on many occasions – museums should not, and indeed cannot, be neutral.

I’ll sign off for now.  See you next week (hopefully I’ll be in a good mood if we beat Swansea City at the weekend!).
Richard