Contested heritage: Curating conflict in and about Northern Ireland
This public panel brings together museum professionals to reflect on the curation of exhibitions representing conflict in Northern Ireland. The speakers will explore strategic decision-making that led to their exhibitions and projects and curatorial decision-making including representation of archival material and oral histories. They will be asked to talk about how they involved, and continue develop, communities in the co-design process and what it means to represent conflict in the context of a sensitive ongoing political situation where events remain emotive and within lived experience. Panelists will consider what they have learned from this curatorial experience and to what extent they situate their exhibitions as furthering reconciliation between communities. The panel will include representatives speaking from the following museums:
• The Ulster Museum’s exhibition, The Troubles and Beyond.
• Bodmin Keep’s exhibition being developed, based on their archive of the Light Infantry.
• UNTOLD Stories of the Irish in the British Army, an educationally focused museum project, working to consolidate the regimental collections in Northern Ireland.
• The Museum of Free Derry’s work with the Free Derry community and the development of the North West Civil Rights Archive.
The panel will be sponsored by the Journal of War and Culture Studies who will be funding an accompanying drinks reception. It will be chaired by Dr Maria-Adriana Deiana (Queens University Belfast) and Dr Hannah West (Anglia Ruskin University) who both serve on the Editorial Board of the Journal. The panel will be hosted at No.28 Bedford Street, the future home of UNTOLD which will give the opportunity to share the plans for the new museum and explore The Royal Ulster Rifles collection.
Speakers
• Laura Patrick, Regimental Heritage Officer for The Royal Irish Regiment
• Karen Logan, Senior Curator of History, National Museums NI
• Representative (tbc), Museum of Free Derry
• Helen Bishop Stevens, Director and James Inglis, Assistant Curator, Bodmin Keep