2 minute read
Culture
from 09102021 WEEKEND
by tribune242
culture Bahamians to virtually connect with experts for the Museums Association of the Caribbean’s annual conference
Museum professionals from across the Caribbean will virtually connect in early November to reflect on cultivating resiliency and what it means during a global health crisis.
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The Museums Association of the Caribbean (MAC) is devoting its annual conference and general meeting on November 3 to 5 to the theme “Cultivating Resilience in Museums and Cultural Heritage Sites.”
In more than 15 concurrent sessions, museum professionals, including curators, educators, scholars, and researchers, are uniting to discuss themes related to historical sites, indigenous peoples, and social justice.
The MAC conference is essential to the Caribbean region because it unites museum “and other cultural heritage” professionals who would otherwise be disconnected. Over 15 countries are represented in the programming, including St Maarten, Bermuda, Bahamas, Panama, Haiti, St Lucia, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, United States, and the Netherlands.
MAC is the only museum service organisation that caters to the entire Caribbean, said Board President Joanne Hyppolite.
“It is really important for our region because we come from smaller nations that don’t have museum training programmes like the bigger countries (Western countries).”
Ms Hyppolite is of Haitian heritage and is the African Diaspora curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC.
“Until now, the stories of our diversity in the Caribbean, at least for the French islands, are displayed in different spaces, and it’s like we’re living different histories. We have to talk about all the different histories in the same space,” said Katarina Jacobson, an archeologist and ceramics specialist who oversees the collections department at Guadeloupe’s Édgar Clerc Museum.
At the MAC conference, all Caribbean identities are represented. Her presentation, “Challenges Around Preserving and Interpreting a Former Slavery Site: The Fidelin Sugar Pottery Manufactory” discusses the purchase of a historical building by a Black/Creole owner.
Alexa Wynter, a professor at the School of Visual Arts, describes the narratives of Indigenous Caribbean heritage as “scarce,” especially for students who are from the Island Arawak diaspora living in US cities like New York. Her presentation, “A Healthier Future for Taino Children Through New Arts-Led Indigenous Museum Education”, covers the lack of indigenous representations in museums and some of the possible solutions.
Verónica Forte, vice president of the Society of Friends of the West Indian Museum of Panama (SAMAAP), and her fellow panellists address the challenges and lessons learned through the lens of the pandemic.
Panel sessions allow attendees to gain in-depth knowledge on a variety of subjects; however, the conference also offers opportunities to connect socially.
Board President Hyppolite also highlights plenaries featuring chefs from various islands, the popular speed networking event, guided meditations, “mix and sip” social mixers led by Caribbean mixologists, and a virtual museum tour of cultural heritage spaces in the Bahamas.
The conference will close with a live musical performance by Barabbas and The Tribe, a Junkanoo band.
