A final word…

Well folks, this is my last blog post for Brent Museum and Brent Archives. Now, please hold back those tears – I’ve had a fantastic 18 months working as Exhibitions Officer. From hosting the British Museum’s touring exhibition ‘Fabric of a Nation: Textiles and Identity in Modern Ghana’, to curating a major retrospective of one of the borough’s most famous artists, Louis Wain, I have thoroughly enjoyed working on some very exciting projects, learning and growing a great deal along the way.

For me, one of the most exciting things about working in Brent has been the opportunity to programme and deliver exhibitions that celebrate the borough’s extraordinary diversity. Throughout my time at Brent, both the museum and archive have delivered some very interesting outreach projects. One of the most memorable ran alongside the ‘Fabric of a Nation’ exhibition. It involved a group of women of African descent working with textile artist, Seiwa Cunningham, to produce the most fantastic artwork – 26 meters long – that hung across the gallery and responded to the British Museum loan of Ghanaian textiles. Adorned with photographs, various fabrics (including part of a wedding dress), beads, maps and text, the artwork contained personal objects donated by the women that not only explored their African ancestry but also helped to tell the story of how they came to live in the borough of Brent. It was a spectacular exhibition.  Personally it was also particularly momentous because the British Museum brought two representatives from National Museums Kenya (NMK) to visit the exhibition who, following their visit, were kind enough to host me on a placement upon their return. The placement involved shadowing the Public Programmes department at NMK for three weeks in September 2011, sharing experiences and exchanging ideas about exhibitions and outreach with different departments across the national museum in Nairobi. I also visited smaller, regional museums across Kenya to witness the work that they are doing to help foster mutual respect and understanding between different tribal communities, particularly following the post-2007 election violence.  It was incredibly inspiring and I came back with many, many ideas for future projects in the borough that I have now passed on to the team – so watch this space. It was also a great opportunity to represent Brent Museum, which can now claim to be internationally known!

It has been a pleasure and a privilege working at Brent Museum and Brent Archives. There are many other things that I could reminisce about here but in the interest of keeping this short and sweet I shall say farewell and look forward to hearing all about outreach projects and exhibitions delivered by the heritage service in the future. 

Posted by Briony