The UnMuseum: A Living Archive of Black Identity and Belonging in the South West

Collecting, Preserving, and Sharing Stories of Black Identity and Belonging

The UnMuseum is not just a place or an institution, it’s a philosophy. It is a radical reimagining of how Black and Racially Minoritised cultural heritage is defined, collected, curated, and shared. Rooted in decolonial and community-led principles, the UnMuseum holds space for the lived experiences, cultural expressions, and histories of Black people across the Southwest of England. It centres ownership, voice, and storytelling in the hands of those who carry and create these legacies, today, and every day. 

Developed by Black South West Network (BSWN), the UnMuseum offers a platform for Black and Racially Minoritised communities across the South West of England to explore and express their own heritage, histories, and identities, in their own words, on their own terms, and through their own cultural expressions. More than an archive or a gallery, it is a decolonial reconceptualisation. It redefines what it means to collect, preserve, and share cultural heritage, by placing power in the hands of those whose stories have too often been misrepresented, marginalised, or erased.

“History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history.” – James Baldwin

So far: The Development Phase

Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, between 2022 and 2024, we carried out an extensive development phase across the Southwest region. Through consultations, workshops, and surveys with over 200 people and cultural producers, we explored what meaningful engagement with heritage looks like for Black and Racially Minoritised communities.

We heard a clear message: for cultural heritage spaces that feel familiar and alive; for immersive, interactive storytelling rooted in food, music, and memory; and for Black communities to have the agency and resources to define and share their own narratives.

These consultations shaped the philosophical core of the UnMuseum, that heritage is not static or owned by institutions, but lived, embodied, and shared. They also laid the groundwork for a long-term, community-led cultural infrastructure that spans physical and digital realms. During the two-year development phase, we:

• Engaged over 200 people from across the region through consultation events and surveys.

• Worked with a network of Black cultural producers, heritage professionals, and organisations to identify the barriers, needs, and aspirations of our communities in engaging with cultural heritage.

• Developed the UnMuseum philosophy, a framework that centres community-led ownership, radical authenticity, and shared meaning-making.

• Built foundational relationships with cultural institutions, such as the Arnolfini, Bristol Old Vic, Black Voices Cornwall, Beyond Face, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, and Whose Knowledge and collaborated on early events like the I Am Witness dialogue and community screenings of The Meaning of Zong.

• Identified key challenges including lack of representation, institutional mistrust, digital exclusion, and the need for intergenerational, multisensory approaches to heritage.

• Responded to the emerging context of racially motivated riots in 2024, which re-opened generational traumas and further underscored the urgency of cultural healing and justice.

From this work, the vision of the UnMuseum emerged: a space rooted in dialogue, care, and collective cultural sovereignty, where stories are not extracted, but honoured and shared by those who live them.

Our UnMuseum launch event was a landmark celebration, bringing together diverse voices, artists, scholars, and cultural enthusiasts to mark the beginning of a transformative journey. Watch the highlights in the video above!

Filmed and edited by Cameron Medford-Hawkins

Where We Are Now: The Delivery Phase

Thanks to funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we are now delivering a bold and ambitious 3-year programme that brings the UnMuseum philosophy to life across the Southwest through:

• Sub-regional events exploring Black identity and belonging in Bristol, Gloucester, Bath, Weston-Super-Mare, Plymouth, Falmouth, and Bournemouth

• Community-led collecting days, where people bring photos, recipes, objects, and stories to be digitised and shared

• An interactive digital platform, co-produced with our Digital Heritage Working Group, that will house and curate the collection

• A festival of Black Identity and Belonging, showcasing stories, performances, and exhibitions gathered from across the region

• A sector development programme, providing training, funding advice, and support to 60 Black-led cultural heritage organisations

• Commissioned creative work, supporting local artists and organisations to explore heritage through storytelling, performance, food, and film

This phase is about deepening relationships, building trust, and curating a living, accessible, and regionally rooted archive, led by and for the communities it serves. This will involve:

1.Sub-regional Programmes

We are working with anchor organisations in Bristol, Gloucester, Bath, Weston-Super-Mare, Bournemouth, Plymouth and Falmouth to deliver community-led events. These include:

• Day-long open-house events curated events exploring identity and belonging that are open to the public where people are invited to share photos, recipes, objects and stories.

• Digitisation and oral history recording stations, capturing not only artefacts but the meaning, emotion, and context behind them.

• Facilitated meals and dialogues, using food as a powerful cultural touchpoint for intergenerational storytelling and connection.

2. A Digital UnMuseum

We are co-producing a digital platform with our Digital Heritage Working Group that will:

• House and showcase the growing UnMuseum collection

• Allow people to browse, contribute, and comment on content

• Embed oral histories, translations, and multiple interpretations to reflect the diversity of languages and perspectives in our communities

This digital space will be accessible, offering a trusted, user-owned alternative to mainstream archives.

3. Commissioned Events and Creative Work

Through our Impetus Commissioning Programme, we will be funding seven new works led by regional Black cultural producers that respond to themes of identity and belonging. Projects may include for example:

• A short film on diasporic youth identity and family (Bristol)

• A steel pan heritage exhibition and podcast (Bath)

• A community-led storytelling and art programme on mixed heritage grief (Weston-Super-Mare)

• A Black Cornish history screening and performance (Cornwall)

• And more, across music, poetry, visual art, and performance

4. Building Sector Capacity

We are running a comprehensive training programme for 60 Black-led heritage organisations across the region featuring guest speakers and run in conjunction with Museum Development South West. This includes:

• Heritage management and archiving skills

• Intellectual property rights, licensing, and digital governance, in partnership with our colleagues at Exeter University and the GLAM-E Lab

• Curatorial practice

• Fundraising, business planning, and relationship-building

• ‘Meet the funder’ sessions with National Lottery Heritage Fund

This work aims to grow a sustainable, independent Black cultural heritage sector in the South West.

Coming Soon: The Festival of Black Identity and Belonging

In 2027, we will host a coproduced multi-site regional festival - a touring, immersive celebration of the collected stories, objects, and histories of Black communities in the Southwest exploring identity and belonging.

The festival will invite our communities from across the UK to witness the power, beauty, and complexity of living Black heritage.

Our Vision: The UnMuseum as a Cultural Infrastructure

The UnMuseum will have a permanent home at the Coach House, a historic building at the very heart of St.Paul’s in Bristol, and will continue to appear across the region in pop-up, mobile, and collaborative forms. The digital UnMuseum will serve as a growing, interactive archive, open, accessible, and rooted in the philosophies of cultural sovereignty, relational knowledge, and lived experience.

We envision a future where Black cultural heritage is not marginal, exoticised, or boxed in, but honoured, protected, and recognised as central to the story of this region and this country.

We aim to reimagine what heritage looks like when it is rooted in community, not institutions. When it is multisensory, multivocal, and emotionally grounded. When it is not curated for people, but with them. The UnMuseum is a growing, living practice, one that welcomes you to join, contribute, reflect, and imagine with us.

UnMuseum Blogs

Want to get involved?

To contribute a story or object for digitisation, attend an upcoming event, or learn more about our commissioning and training programmes, please contact our Policy and Development Manager, Angelique Retief, angelique@bswn.org.uk.