Successful collaborative award announcement: road to reconciliation by Abiti, Hadeer & Kizili (ITP 2013)

Earlier this year funding was awarded to the successful collaborative award application entitled Road to Reconciliation. Congratulations to Abiti Nelson (Uganda, ITP 2013), Hadeer Belal (Egypt, ITP 2013), Kizili Wendland Chole (Kenya, ITP 2013) and John Giblin (Curator, British Museum) and good luck with your project!

What is the project?

The ITP will support Road to Reconciliation over the next 1 – 2 years. The team from 3 ITP countries and the British Museum will create a community exhibition of South Sudanese refugee stories from camps in northern Uganda, which can tour school and camps in that region.

The exhibition is envisioned to bring social healing using objects, arts and people.

The project will build on Uganda National Museum’s recent work with displaced communities in northern Uganda, which resulted in a temporary exhibition at the Uganda National Museum in Kampala.

A collaborative workshop will result in a community exhibition story, aimed at children aged 7-17 years old who will benefit by learning lessons on peace and reconciliation. Moving the exhibition closer to the community will facilitate the dissemination of the exhibition’s content.

Words from Abiti Nelson, Uganda National Museum, ITP 2013

My name is Abiti Nelson and I work at Uganda National Museum. I am an ITP Fellow from 2013. I am very excited to be part of the team who received the ITP collaborative project award: I am happy to reunite with colleagues from my ITP year. It is our dream to implement a legacy project. It is our desire to achieve an international collaborative ITP alumni project that will benefit the community. My goal is to be strongly connected to the ITP, develop ideas and share international experiences. I look forward to sharing the benefits of ITP with the wider community. We believe that the impact of the ITP should go to the community who are in need, Road to Reconciliation will focus particularly on social healing through the museum work.

I have enjoyed being connected to the ITP especially in sharing ideas and being able to work together. I have found that being connected to the ITP has given me an international network and through the opportunities I have built my career in the world of the museum and leadership. The ITP organising team have supported me in acquiring important books for exhibitions related to my museum work.

The first big step for Road to Reconciliation is the preparatory planning meeting with ITP alumni and BM staff. The goal of the meeting is to explore issues of community representation from all project partners, including input from ITP Alumni that draws on their experiences in other international contexts. This meeting will be held in February 2018. We shall also create a community exhibition based on our findings from engagement with the community.

We aim to achieve an online exhibition catalogue (audio, photos and videos) which will be used by the ITP team at the British Museum, Barlonyo memorial community centre, in schools and in refugee settlement tours.

The project will be give my director the opportunity to get to know the international team whom I worked with on the 2013 Summer Programme and will get to understand the ITP programme through the network of Fellows. We look forward to sharing the results of the project to the wider friends of the ITP, funders and British Museum colleagues.

Words from Hadeer Belal, Coptic Museum Cairo, ITP 2013

 

My name is Hadeer Belal and I am a curator from the Coptic Museum, Cairo. After reading Abiti’s initial project proposal, I believed my participation in this project would be very important. To support this project as ITP fellow and to gain knowledge and experience from this great project is incredibly exciting. I look forward to learning more about the culture and heritage of an important African country like Uganda. Participation in the project will prove how interesting the ITP can be. Since the 2013 Summer Programme I opened two successful temporary exhibitions in my institution 2014/2015 and participated in the Mumbai workshop. To be selected to take part in this useful workshop was a great honour. From this work shop I learnt how to work globally which I think Road to Reconciliation also represents.

Participating in this project by preparing for the community workshop and sharing my ideas through my experiences of temporary exhibitions sounds very exciting to me. I really have a great passion for taking part in this project.

As for working with Abiti, Kizili and John, I think it is one of my duties towards the ITP to employ my skills and support our colleagues in their project. A part of the development of the ITP is to be partners in such projects in order to sustain our network. In my opinion Road to Reconciliation is a great opportunity for me to support the team of Uganda Museum, especially with my experience of preparing the education and cultural programmes which accompany exhibitions. Working with refugees and using the work of the museum to help refugees is a new experience for me. I am very thankful to Abiti Nelson who asked me to be one of the partners and am glad to be working with Abiti, Kizili and John.

Words from Kizili Wendland Chole, Kitale Museum Kenya, ITP 2013

My name is Kizili Wendland Chole and I am from Kitale Museum in Kenya. I came on the ITP in 2013 with Abiti and Hadeer. Abiti asked me if I would like to work with him on Road to Reconciliation. This project is important from my perspective as it provides a forum for people, especially young people, to celebrate their cultures as a family. This project will enhance unity and cohesion amongst different groups of people. This exhibition will educate the youth about their strong cultural roots and make them appreciate where they have come from.

I know I will love working with Abiti, John and Hadeer. I look forward to sharing experiences, skills and knowledge gained from the ITP 2013 course and I look forward to achieving the objectives of this project. Thank you!

Congratulations to all of the team and watch the blog for more information as the project develops!