Manchester Museum Podcast

What are the legacies of colonialism and how do these legacies still affect us today? We speak to internationally acclaimed British artists, The Singh Twins, to discuss their work, their journey as artists and the narratives of Empire, colonialism, conflict and slavery that their work confronts.

In 2019 the Manchester Museum and the Partition Museum in Amritsar, India came together to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, co-producing the exhibition 'Jallianwala 1919 – Punjab Under Siege'. As a part of the exhibition The Singh Twins presented a unique creative response to this largely hidden episode of British rule in India. The triptych piece entitled Jallianwala: Repression and Retribution examines the massacre, its historical context and its legacy, with many citing the event as a turning point in the fight for Indian Independence.

The Twins are also active members of the collective currently helping to co-curate the Manchester Museum’s South Asia Gallery, due to open in 2022. This groundbreaking partnership with the British Museum will result in the UK's first permanent gallery exploring the histories and experiences of the South Asian diaspora. 

Placing Manchester’s South Asian diaspora communities at the heart of the gallery, this co-curation approach has inspired diverse communities to come together with the ambition to tell the stories that people are most passionate about and really want to share.

Episode 3 Transcript

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Manchester Museum is on a mission to become the most imaginative, caring and inclusive museum in the world, and in this podcast we will share open and honest conversations with special guests, which will inform, entertain and inspire.

Through these conversations we hope to reframe what it means for museums to care, and explore how we can build understanding, empathy and love for our world and each other.

We want to raise awareness of rarely told and overlooked histories. The first series of the podcast will explore this theme, developing on some of the projects and exhibitions where we are helping shed light on the things they didn’t teach us in school.

Find out more about the Manchester Museum:

The Things They Didn't Teach Us

Website

Twitter

Instagram

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Follow The Singh Twins:

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Original music courtesy of Move 78:

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Egyptian artefacts appear in museums around the world, but how did they get there and why are Egyptian voices so often absent from the narratives around them?

Our guest in this episode is Heba Abd El Gawad, an Egyptian Egyptologist and lead researcher for ‘Egypt’s Dispersed Heritage’, a project putting modern day Egyptians at the heart of the conversation about Egyptian heritage.  

Working with Egyptian comic artists and including the input of the public in Egypt, the project tries to confront colonial legacies of ancient Egyptian displays in Western museums like that in Manchester and question what role Egyptian archaeology has played in shaping how the world today perceives and represents ancient Egypt. Building on a series of events in the UK, Heba describes some of the key factors to consider when asking ‘Who Owns Egypt’s Heritage?’ 

Episode 2 transcript

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Manchester Museum is on a mission to become the most imaginative, caring and inclusive museum in the world, and in this podcast we will share open and honest conversations with special guests, which will inform, entertain and inspire.

Through these conversations we hope to reframe what it means for museums to care, and explore how we can build understanding, empathy and love for our world and each other.

We want to raise awareness of rarely told and overlooked histories. The first series of the podcast will explore this theme, developing on some of the projects and exhibitions where we are helping shed light on the things they didn’t teach us in school.

Find out more about the Manchester Museum:

The Things They Didn't Teach Us

Website

Twitter

Instagram

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Follow the Egypt Dispersed Heritage project: 

Twitter and Facebook

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Original music courtesy of Move 78:

Instagram

Spotify

iTunes

Are we honest about our history and is what we teach representative of our true story? In this episode we speak to Kwame Boateng from The Black Curriculum to discuss how what we learn about our past is so important to our shared future.

The Black Curriculum is a social enterprise campaigning to get Black British History taught in UK schools 365 days of the year, and since 2019 they have been delivering their arts focused history programmes to 8-16 year olds. 

Students' engagement with Black History in the UK is often limited to one month of the year, with an over emphasis on the Transatlantic Slave Trade, but the team at The Black Curriculum believe that a balanced and integrated teaching of our shared history can facilitate real social change.

Episode 1 transcript

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Manchester Museum is on a mission to become the most imaginative, caring and inclusive museum in the world, and in this podcast we will share open and honest conversations with special guests, which will inform, entertain and inspire.

Through these conversations we hope to reframe what it means for museums to care, and explore how we can build understanding, empathy and love for our world and each other.

We want to raise awareness of rarely told and overlooked histories. The first series of the podcast will explore this theme, developing on some of the projects and exhibitions where we are helping shed light on the things they didn’t teach us in school.

Find out more about the Manchester Museum:

The Things They Didn't Teach Us

Website

Twitter

Instagram

-----

See more from The Black Curriculum:

Website

Twitter

Instagram 

Original music courtesy of Move 78:

Instagram 

Spotify

iTunes