Towards a Model of Community co-curation in the Caribbean:

Community of Curatorial Practice at the Barbados Museum & Historical Society

Authors

  • Kaye Hall Barbados Museum & Historical Society
  • Natalie McGuire-Batson Barbados Museum & Historical Society

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.57031/culcal.v1i1.12134

Keywords:

community of practice, multivocality, multifocal, socially engaged practice

Abstract

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” (Lave and Wenger, 1991) and explores next steps for imagining the truly inclusive museum in our curatorial practice going forward.

Author Biographies

Kaye Hall, Barbados Museum & Historical Society

Kaye R N Hall is the Education and Community Outreach Officer at the Barbados Museum & Historical Society where she very much enjoys her job of passing on history, heritage and culture to her fellow countrymen of all ages.  In this role she fosters partnerships with regional education bodies to ensure the propagation and revitalisation of heritage education, as well as with schools, colleges, communities and individual students to ensure that the inculcation of heritage is a rewarding lifelong learning experience. She holds a Master of Education (MEd) Social Context and Education Policy from the University of the West Indies (UWI) as well as a professional training certificate in Heritage Culture and Human Resources from the University of Florence. She sits on the executive of local chapter of the International Council of Museums (ICOM Barbados) as its Vice Chairperson and is the Moderator of the Heritage Education and Professional Development Forum for the Caribbean Heritage Network.  She is also a resource person for the Ministry of Education Technical and Vocational Training in Barbados where she sits of both the History and Geography Syllabus Development Committees

Natalie McGuire-Batson, Barbados Museum & Historical Society

Natalie McGuire-Batson’s curatorial work engages community-driven discourse in culture, through research in Caribbean museology. Having completed a BA in History of Art at the University of Leicester and an MA in Museums and Cultural Heritage at the University of Auckland, she is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Cultural Studies at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill with a research focus on Anglophone Caribbean museums and community agency. She is the Curator – Social History and Engagement at the Barbados Museum & Historical Society and serves on several committees, including as Public Relations Officer for ICOM Barbados, Board Member of ICOFOM LAC, member of the International Council of Revista Aleph Journal and a member of the Board for the Barbados National Art Gallery.

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Published

30-05-2023

How to Cite

Hall, Kaye, and Natalie McGuire-Batson. 2023. “Towards a Model of Community Co-Curation in the Caribbean: : Community of Curatorial Practice at the Barbados Museum & Historical Society”. Culture Caleidoscoop 1 (1). https://doi.org/10.57031/culcal.v1i1.12134.
Received 2022-05-27
Accepted 2022-09-23
Published 2023-05-30