Research Now: Tchiliwandele and the Making African Connections Project - A display at Powell-Cotton Museum (Spring 2020)

Item

Title

Research Now: Tchiliwandele and the Making African Connections Project - A display at Powell-Cotton Museum (Spring 2020)

Description

In early March 2020 a small display was opened at the Powell-Cotton Museum which aimed to introduce the MAC project to both the museum's audience and to staff not directly involved in the project.
The display was designed to go in the corridor space near the entrance to the galleries and was the final section in a small series of displays about the history and development of the museum. Inbal Livne felt it would be good to use this space to introduce research currently taking place in the museum, therefore bringing the museum history section up to date. The displays in this space will be temporary and change regularly to reflect the dynamic research culture of the museum. We were delighted to be the first project profiled.
Inbal Livne and I discussed many different ideas for how we could use this space such as focussing on an object type or profiling the archive and photography. Finally we decided that the best thing to do with the space available would be to use it to introduce on of the Angolan individuals involved in the creation of the collection. We felt that this would be an accessible way of introducing the project and its aims and would also contribute to Inbal’s wider strategy of attempting to ‘decentre’ the family in the museum. We felt it important to emphasise that the collection is a result of the efforts of a great many people. Tchiliwandele is one of many people who worked with the sisters, we hope to continue to be able to bring you their stories.
This version of the display is slightly different to the version in the museum because section three has been split into two sections to give more prominence to the issue of who is and isn't named in the archive.
(NSty 15/04/2020)
Image credit: All photographs of the display in situ were taken by Rachel Jennings, curator at the Powell-Cotton Museum, while the museum was in lockdown and inaccessible to most of us. We are extremely grateful to her for doing so. (NSty 21/05/2020)

Date

Spring 2020

Type

Museum display

Rights

© The Powell-Cotton Trust

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