The UnMuseum Cultural & Heritage Programme

Step into a world where tradition meets innovation, where the echoes of intangible cultural heritage resonate with a decolonial spirit. 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. This short film captures the essence of the event, offering a glimpse into the vibrant tapestry of cultures that the UnMuseum seeks to showcase. Join us on this inspiring journey as we redefine the narrative surrounding cultural heritage and strive to create a space where every story is heard, and every tradition celebrated. Watch, share, and become a part of the UnMuseum movement. Welcome to a new era in cultural exploration!

🎥 Filmed and edited by Cameron Medford-Hawkins

This film explores Zoma Museum, an environmentally conscious art institution in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia co-founded by acclaimed artist Elias Sime and anthropologist, curator and writer Meskerem Assegued. Zoma Museum takes a transformative and collaborative approach to art, architecture, education, sustainability, and the celebration and preservation of heritage and tradition. Directed, filmed and edited by Andy Francis. Produced by Mian Ng on behalf of UWE Bristol.

In 2023, the BSWN team, alongside our colleagues from the Arnolfini and UWE, embarked on a transformative journey to Museum Zoma in the heart of Addis Ababa with colleagues from the Arnolfini and UWE who were kind enough to invite us to share this experience with them. This photo essay shares some of our reflections on the impact of our visit and the profound lessons we learned about art, architecture, education, sustainability, leadership, and the celebration and preservation of heritage and tradition.

Over the past few years, we have engaged in a number of community-based research projects, the latest being an examination of the situation of decolonisation within the cultural heritage sector in the South West.

The overarching strategic aim of our Cultural Heritage Programme is to impact upon a range of racial justice measures through culture and heritage work. In this programme, we have begun to develop a series of community archiving workshops, create content, and develop the digital UnMuseum prototype - an online space to which community-based archivists and cultural producers can ‘upload’ content and curate ‘collections’ through Black and Minoritised lenses.

It is known that participation in culture and heritage provides positive impacts for people’s well-being and sense of belonging. From a racial justice perspective, the participation in Black and Minoritised culture and heritage articulated through Black and Minoritised lenses amplifies this impact on health for Black and Minoritised people by providing spaces for healing from generational trauma and by removing the additional trauma caused by the mis-telling’s traditionally articulated through mainstream institutions. Further, the intertwining of cultural enterprise development throughout the programme impacts upon economic racial justice.

In addition, as part of this work, we will be exploring issues around power, identity, belonging, culture, and heritage in a series of events over the Autumn. Defined as ‘something that is handed down from the past; as a tradition’, heritage is a key cultural component of identity. So far, we have undertaken three workshops, held an online panel discussion, and facilitated an online conference, aptly titled Beyond Museums in the Aftermath of Colston: Re-imagining Black Pasts, Presents, and Futures – in which 230 people have helped define and evolve the concept into tangible measurable reality for which we can now pursue funding.