NMS and NMM lead £250k community-led research project to tell diaspora stories 3 Dec 2021

A new pilot led by National Museums Scotland and the National Maritime Museum will enable organisations around the UK to create new research projects with South Asian, African and African-Caribbean diaspora community groups. Funded by £250k from AHRC, the project will be shaped by research questions posed by community groups, enabling them to challenge and expand on established representations of diaspora experiences. NMS and NMM will act as a hub, holding best practice guidelines, and the central fund which will be shared with partners around the UK. These include Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, Glasgow Life and the National Museum of the Royal Navy. Outputs will include new research into historic and contemporary meanings of objects, which will in turn inspire new projects, defined by communities, and based around partner collections. NMS Keeper of World Cultures, Dr John Giblin said “we want to support greater equality, diversity and inclusion within the galleries, libraries, archives and museums sector in the UK. To do this we need to consider who is visiting our institutions and what they find there when they do. We need to invest more work in how histories of empire, migration and life in Britain are told from the perspective of diaspora communities.” NMS, Museums Journal