Exhibitions

As a museum “without walls”, we are known for our compelling and original programme of multi-layered, innovative, thought-provoking projects and collaborations. Here are just some of the national exhibition-events we’ve created and delivered – starting with the most recent.

Pardner Hand: A Caribbean answer to British banking exclusion

Financial discrimination and how the Windrush Generation fought back.

Our free Pardner Hand exhibition in collaboration with the Bank of England Museum explores the financial discrimination faced by members of the Windrush Generation and how they fought back with a community savings and loans scheme known as Pardner Hand. The exhibition opened at the Bank of England in the City of London on Windrush Day, 22 June 2023 and is open until 20 December 2024.

Curated by Museumand, the exhibition tells the stories of Caribbean immigrants who came to the UK from 1948 onwards, after being invited by the British Government to help rebuild the country after World War Two. Many were denied access to high street banking services including bank accounts and mortgages, making it hard to save money or buy a house. The resourceful and resilient Windrush Generation turned to the Pardner Hand, a centuries-old scheme originating in Africa that had been taken to the Caribbean by enslaved Africans during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The Pardner Hand enabled many Caribbeans to save, take out loans and buy property – and is still used widely today.

Get In Touch to Find Out More
70 Objeks & Tings

Celebrating 70 Years of Caribbeans in the UK through the objects they hold dear

70 Objeks & Tings is a book that’s evolved to become a touring exhibition and podcast series – telling the stories of the Windrush Generation in their own words, through 70 everyday objects and experiences familiar to both Caribbean and British life.

We launched the book online in 2020, as a way of giving people access to Caribbean history, heritage and culture during the Covid-19 pandemic, and a year later we launched the printed hardback version. Each chapter explores broad themes including Caribbean Food, Caribbean Homes in the UK, Caribbean Hair, Beauty & Dress, Caribbean Culture and Caribbean Contributions to the UK.

We also launched our exhibition of the same name – designed to bring each page to life and enable visitors to get up close and personal to some of the Objeks & Tings explored in the book. The exhibition premiered at the Streetlife Museum in Hull, has been on display at Nottingham Castle, and is now at York Castle Museum.

Find Out More
Objeks & Tings Podcast

Special guests explore the objects that represent their Caribbean heritage

Our Objeks & Tings podcast series in collaboration with Message Heard features us talking to a different special guest each episode, about the object that represents their Caribbean heritage and the role it played in their British upbringing.

Our special guests have included everyone from a hip hop musician and choreographer, to a fashion designer and chef. Objeks & Tings series one is available from wherever you get your podcasts – so listen, sign up and share a review to help spread the word!

Find Out More
Black Dolls: The Power of Representation

How Black people are represented through children’s toys and its impact on childhood

Black dolls and characters in children’s books have caricatured and misrepresented Black people throughout the ages. Our Black Dolls exhibition at the National Trust Museum of Childhood at Sudbury Hall in Derbyshire explored that legacy and its impact on Black people’s experience of childhood.

Our aim was to open up a debate and enable different interpretations of the Museum of Childhood’s collection of historical Black dolls from a whole variety of viewpoints, including the contentious golliwogs and minstrel dolls of the past.

The exhibition created a space to shine a light on the UK’s colonial past, through the way Black people were represented through children’s toys, and enable people to experience it from different perspectives. The exhibition also enabled people to share their own stories and explore the way Black people are represented today, with exhibits including dolls in national dress and contemporary Black Barbies.

Find Out More
52 Genres and counting…Charting the History of Black Music

How Black artists and producers helped to shape music and culture in the UK

52 Genres and Counting charts the history of Black British music in the UK from 1947 to the present day – through 52 key genres of music that have been created or evolved by Black artists and producers. The 52 genres include rock and roll, reggae, hip-hop, blues and jazz, as well as many sub-genres evolved over the years by African-Caribbean communities in the UK.

Launched at Nottingham’s Splendour festival before touring the Bass Festival in Birmingham and Soul Fest in Liverpool, the multimedia exhibition explores pivotal songs, artists and genres that reflect the musical history of African-Caribbean communities in the UK decade by decade – and how the history of Black British Music has influenced, and continues to influence, other cultures and musical genres in the UK.

Music unifies us and builds bridges across ethnic groups and society as a whole, so it’s a perfect vehicle to engage everyone in African-Caribbean social history, heritage and culture, no matter what their age or ethnic background. It’s also a vital part of Caribbean culture and through the exhibition, we wanted to chart the history of Black British music in the UK, in a way that’s never been done before.

Find Out More
An Edible Exhibition from the Takeaway Museum

How the Transatlantic Slave Trade shaped contemporary Caribbean cuisine

We created our unique Edible Exhibition in collaboration with a popular Caribbean restaurant and takeaway in Nottingham called Jamaican Ways. ‘Exhibits’ included a selection of traditional and authentic Caribbean dishes available to takeaway – so visitors could literally taste and experience how the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the 17^th and 18^th centuries shaped contemporary Caribbean cuisine and the food and drink enslaved Africans would have consumed at Christmas – the only time of the year enslaved people were given any extra rations.

The enslaved used their culinary experience and ingenuity to create many delicious dishes from these rations, supplemented with any ingredients they could cultivate themselves or find growing wild. Many of these dishes are still eaten across the Caribbean and Caribbean diaspora today, including rice and peas. Each takeaway meal came with an exhibition guide to tell people more about the dishes they were eating – including their cultural origin and meaning. During the two month-long festive exhibition, which ran from December 2015 to January 2016, around 6,000 people bought an exhibition takeaway.

Since our edible exhibition, we’ve been invited to curate a whole range of articles, videos and podcasts celebrating the history, heritage and culture of Caribbean cuisine – including collaborations with Sous Chef, Together TV, Lecker Podcast and the Nottingham Post newspaper.

Find Out More
Nine Nights

Caribbean funeral traditions in the UK and how they’re changing

Our award-winning short film and accompanying exhibition explores Caribbean funeral traditions in the UK and how the culture is changing as younger generations of British-born Caribbeans are influenced by UK customs, as well as those handed down by their parents and grandparents.

The documentary tells the story of Caribbean funeral customs through the personal experiences and reminiscences of Caribbean people in the UK, including the fascinating tradition of Nine Nights, the time from a person’s passing to their funeral. It’s an uplifting, joyous, jubilant celebration of feasting, singing, dancing and playing games like dominoes, bringing together friends, family, neighbours and colleagues, more of a happy reunion than a sad occasion. On the ninth night, the person’s spirit is believed to say goodbye and continue on to its final resting place.

As the film shows, a loved one’s passing is one of the most social and celebratory events in a Caribbean’s life, because it’s a time to recognise and celebrate their life, achievements, times shared and what they’ve done for others.

Find Out More
Home to Home: From Caribbean Isles to British Isles

Stories in a suitcase exploring the journey of the Windrush Generation

If you were to start a new life in a new country on the other side of the world, what would you fill your small suitcase with? Our inaugural touring exhibition ‘Home to Home: From Caribbean Isles to British Isles’ explores what the Windrush Generation brought with them to England, after being invited by the British Government to help re-build the UK after the Second World War.

The Windrush Generation is named after the SS Empire Windrush, the ship that brought the first passengers from the Caribbean, arriving at Tilbury Docks on 22 June 1948. The exhibition has toured extensively since its launch in 2016 and was shown at The British Library in London to mark the national 70^th Windrush Anniversary in 2018.

Find Out More