Online workshop: ‘What should we do with labels?’

How can museums and galleries use the limited text of gallery labels to responsibly convey the complexities and contexts of nineteenth-century artworks depicting racist, orientalist, and pro-imperial imagery? In previous events we have explored ways of approaching nineteenth-century imagery that historicises it, and tells complex, nuanced stories. In this practical session we will explore how these ideas might be conveyed in the approximately 80 words usually allocated for museum labels.

The first hour will feature museum professionals, academics and activists reflecting on their experiences of writing museum interpretation. In the second hour we will work in breakout groups to examine historic labels for three key objects, and explore alternative approaches.

This session is co-organised with Maddie Hewitson, Research Assistant for the forthcoming Ashmolean exhibition ‘Colour Revolution: Victorian Art, Fashion and Design’. The three objects discussed in breakout rooms will be drawn from this exhibition: John Frederick Lewis’s The Pipe Bearer, William Holman Hunt’s Afterglow in Egypt, and Carlo Marochetti’s bust of Duleep Singh.

2pm Introduction: Maddie Hewitson (Research Assistant, Ashmolean Museum).

2.10 Janine Francois (Academic, Activist, Agitator, Tate/University of Bedfordshire) on labels, race, and cultural difference

2.20 Rebecca Bridgman (Curatorial & Exhibitions Manager, Birmingham Museums Trust) on co-curation and label writing at Birmingham Museums Trust

2.30 Lightning talks introducing breakout room objects

Priya Atwal (Community History Fellow, University of Oxford): Carlo Marochetti, Duleep Singh (1856)

Maddie Hewitson (Research Assistant, Ashmolean Museum): William Holman Hunt, Afterglow in Egypt (1861)

Victoria Osborne (Curator of Fine Art, Birmingham Museums Trust): John Frederick Lewis, The Pipe Bearer (1856)

2.50 Break

3 Breakout rooms

3.40 Reconvene for discussion

4pm End

Please register here