An ITP Meetup in South Africa (Nelson Abiti Adebo, ITP 2013, Uganda)

Written by Nelson Abiti Adebo, Curator and Senior Conservator, Uganda National Museum (ITP 2013, Uganda).

On 9 October 2019, I was privileged to meet Ntombovuyo Tywakadi (ITP 2016, South Africa), Collections Assistants at Iziko Museums. The Iziko Museums manage 11 national museums in South Africa. Museum buildings include the Natural History building, National Art Gallery, the Slave Lodge and the Cultural History Museum which now houses the museum collections. Ntombovuyo and I toured the stores and many of the galleries. The museums are undergoing many transformations, especially to the stores for the collection and gallery. When we visited the storage and conservation facility I asked Ntombovuyo politely if she had attended the ITP? She said yes; I noticed the care for the textiles were part of the ITP training.

We met with Ntombovuyo’s Director of Operations Dr. Bongani Ndhlovu and professor Derek Peterson, with whom we co-curated the Idi Amin photograph exhibition at the Uganda National Museum. I managed to invite Hadeer Belal (ITP 2013, Egypt) for the opening of the exhibition in May 2019 through the ITP Collaborative Awards Project. Hadeer had visited Uganda to take part in a panel discussion on cultural heritage in Uganda. You can read about Hadeer’s Uganda trip here.

It was lovely to meet a fellow ITP participant doing incredible work at her institution.

Nelson