What is TAD Research Forum? Transcultural Art and Design (TAD) Postgraduate Research Forum comprises of (a) regularmeetings (study group among NU PGRs) and (b) an external speaker programme. It bringstogether PGR researchers, scholars and practitioners based at NorthumbriaUniversity, from various departments and diverse backgrounds to engage in criticaldialogue around contemporary themes in interdisciplinary design, visual and material culturethat engages particularly with issues around race, diversity and postcolonial studies. Coreteam members comprise of NU PhD students from the Department of Arts, Humanities andComputer & Information Science.
Locations
Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne Northumbria University, London Campus, London
Next Event London - 28 June 2018 - Northumbria Uni. London Campus, 110 Middlesex St, London E1 7HT
Dr. Nicola Stylianou
Creating African Fashion Histories in the UK
The presentation will look at a Heritage Lottery Funded project ‘Fashioning Africa’ which started in 2015 and sought to address a gap in UK museum collections – African dress from the post-colonial period. As well as being innovative in terms of what it was acquiring the project also aimed to explore new ways of collecting by devolving decisions over what to acquire to an external panel. This panel was made up of academics and local people with diasporic backgrounds and an interest in fashion and culture. While museums frequently work with local people and groups on events and displays, it is unusual for these projects to impact directly on core museum processes such as acquisitions. The paper will explore the reasons why African fashion was not systematically collected by UK institutions, looking at how museum categories and processes have favoured the perpetuation of a perception of Africa as local, rural and traditional rather than transnational, cosmopolitan and modern. It will then go on to discuss the Fashioning Africa project including the role of the panel, the collecting process and the objects acquired. To what extent had the project been able to disrupt museum processes?
Limited spaces available. Reserve your seat today! Send an email to [email protected]
Speakers
Prof. Timon Screech Professor of the History of Japanese Art, SOAS
Dr. Bernadette Lynch Honorary Research Associate at University College London (UCL)
Dr. Nicola Stylianou Fashioning Africa Collection Panel, Brighton Museum