Thirteenth International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

The late eighteenth century was the era of birth of U.S. democracy and the height of the transatlantic Atlantic slave trade. Our intention is to use our discussion, and filmed presentation of our art installation depicting black women’s experiences in the Middle Passage as a framework to discuss how a museum space can present issues of race, national mythology, gender, bondage, and belonging historically and in contemporary society. Our study also provides the audience with an opportunity to explore the ways in which museums can present the impact of wealth and resource extraction—human, material and cultural—on communities of color across the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe and Africa. Although not directly linked to the 400 year commemorations of the arrival of pirated Africans to British North America that have been staged in many cultural, historical, and artistic spaces over the past several months in the U.S., our exploration on Works of Providence certainly will draw on and influence this vital national/international discourse.