Federation of International Human Rights Museums - Conference papers 2010 all online

The theme of the conference was “Museums fighting for human rights” and it was a really inspiring and thought provoking conference. It was just what I need this time last year, battling to get into the field, trying to get published and facing lots of apathy in Austria about the museum and social agency in this way. It really recharged my batteries. It’s just a shame that they decided to charge for the second conference which immediately counts a lot of young, enthusiastic people out. 

The page has also been added to the free online museum resources tab to the left of the page. Enjoy!

FIHRM add resources to their homepage

The Federation of International Human Rights Museums (FIHRM) has added resources to their website and will continue to add information and perhaps podcasts from the inaugural conferenc to their resources homepage.

The first case study (Exhibitions dealing with the legacies of slavery in the Bicentenary year of the abolition of the Slave Trade Act) was written by yours truly. It’s a bit lengthy (23 pages) but if anybody does get around to reading it, I would be thrilled to hear your feedback!

Campaign Zone opens at the International Slavery Museum

As you will no doubt be aware the International Slavery Museum has never been content just to reflect on the history of the transatlantic slave trade, its abolition and legacies. Anyone who has read the excellent blog posts by the head of the museum Richard Benjamin will know that it is an active campaigning museum which works to raise awareness of modern forms of slavery and how people can help in the fight against them.

This has led the museum to hold the Trafficked exhibition and acquire and exhibit thought provoking items such as the ankle bracelets worn by modern day slaves and the artwork ‘Missing’ (2007) by Rachel Wilberforce, all of which are currently on display.

An exciting new initiative at the museum is the creation of a dedicated Campaign Zone, which will focus on these the contemporary issues. The Campaign Zone includes a resource area and an exhibition space, with its first exhibition Home Alone: end domestic slavery opening today.

I caught up with collections development officer Stephen Carl-Lokko for a quick preview of the Campaign Zone yesterday and photographed him by his favourite quote in the entrance, which is an important and very fitting message:

 ”When we oppress others, we end up oppressing ourselves. All of our humanity is dependent upon recognizing the humanity in others.” Desmond Tutu

This marks the start of a busy couple of months for the museum, which is hosting the inaugural conference of the Federation of International Human Rights Museums next week. Once that has finished staff will just have time to prepare for the special events planned for Black History Month in October.

International Federation of Human Rights Museums has a new website

Also, the full programme is now available online and looks exciting!