Discussion - what to do about Horniman Museum

I am copying this across on behalf of my partner Clare Lorraine Phipps from the se23.life facebook group. This is posted from both of us and we’d be really keen to hear any ideas you have.

I’m keen for us as a community to do our bit. Would anyone here be up for organising a petition or letter to the Horniman along with some actions like protest outside? Some suggested calls to action for the Horniman could be that they publicly state their inventory of items which were stolen / bought under duress and when they will return them. I don’t know for example what has happened with these: https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/arts/horniman-museum-return-nigerian-bronzes-looted-a4348801.html

What else needs to be done? I’m keen to be involved but don’t want to over commit, and I am keen to be led by black and residents of colour.

I love that we have a great green space on our doorstep and museum but think we should recognise that it is not free from a racist past and that we have it partly as a result of that.

How about you contact the Horniman and speak to them? From what I have seen they are pretty engaged with the history of their collections.

There is a lot of active debate in the museum world about the origin of collections and recontexualising them. Whilst this is important please also remember a lot of cultural institutions are under a lot of financial pressure at the moment and may have a lot of furloughed staff. A protest outside in this febrile atmosphere will not help a much loved community asset which, in my opinion, is already engaging in positive dialogue about the origins of its collections.

I echo what HannahM said - just try asking them first. Why be so quick to organise a petition and protest?

And there’s already a thread about this.

There’s already a thread about this, tagged to the #local-politics category which not everyone has access to based on user trust level. New users won’t have access by default.

Just to remind everyone about the FAQ and politics, please keep this inline with guidelines in the FAQ
https://se23.life/faq#politics

This post was flagged and is temporarily hidden.

They have already made a statement:

See https://www.horniman.ac.uk/story/frederick-hornimans-colonial-legacy/

A post was merged into an existing topic: Horniman Museum targeted by “Topple the Racists” activism

To avoid duplication