Richard Ohene-Larbi

Biography

Richard is a Museum Educator working for the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB) where he is responsible for giving on site interpretation and guided tours to the diverse audiences that visit the National Museum and its satellite museums.

Richard conducts public education programmes based on the museum’s collections and exhibitions by facilitating outreach to schools and communities on the ways they can assist the GMMB on achieving its mandate as legal custodians of Ghana’s material culture. Richard also collates and analyses visitor statistics and comments to help the education department understand the concerns of their audience and find ways to mitigate issues in order to improve the visitor experience.

Currently, Richard is completing a PhD in museum and heritage studies at the University of Ghana.

During the ITP, Richard looked forward to creating space for discussions on the topic of restitution, as he feels there is an absence of museum educators and heritage practitioners from Ghana in the current discourse. The British Museum is due to loan 16 Ghanaian objects to the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi, so Richard hoped that the skills and knowledge he acquired on the ITP would support him in the development of education programmes centered around those 16 objects.

Richard was also interested to learn more about museum interpretation, particularly how the British Museum uses research to inform exhibitions and interpretation. He was also looking forward to developing an understanding of museum education programmes from an international perspective, which he hopes he will be able to implement into his own work.

At the British Museum

During his time at the British Museum, Richard was based in the Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas and his UK partner placement was spent at Norfolk Museum Service.

Richard’s participation on the International Training Programme was generously supported by the Aall Foundation.