2. Rethinking the Atlantic Worlds Gallery, Ongoing

In 2023, Deptford People’s Heritage Museum was invited to develop a response to the Atlantic Worlds Gallery at the National Maritime Museum. Working with Dr Janna Graham, Professor Jorella Andrews and students from Goldsmiths’ Visual Cultures Department, we developed a critique and recommendations for the space and the museum more generally, outlining concerns including issues with narrative, colonial gaze, object display, the relationship with locality, missing links to anti-colonial struggle and contemporary conditions, and the modes of community involvement deployed by the museum.

On Slavery Remembrance Day 2023 we piloted proposals made in our report, particularly related to the use of objects as mediators between histories of trauma, struggle and resistance, highlighting resonances and differences in visitors’ experiences. Museum co-founder Joyce Jacca and director Tracey Jarrett delivered seminars about sugar, afro combs, and Abayomi dolls. We used processes like Stuart Hall’s Circuits of Culture, and Professor Jorella Andrews’ Interviewing Objects, as well as Dr Graham’s work with conjunctural analysis to consider the links between past, present and future through engagements with objects and historical narratives.

We will continue to work with the museum in 2024/25 on their framework for community and audience involvement.