Steve Biko Centre to participate in MuseumFutures Africa project
Covid-19
The Steve Biko Centre in Qonce, Eastern Cape is one of six African museums selected to participate in the MuseumFutures Africa project.
MuseumFutures Africa is a Pan-African project established to support the conceptual development of museums throughout the African continent. Spearheaded by the Goethe-Institut and a team of practitioners from the art and museum fields, the project was conceived in the culmination of a series of ‘Museum Conversations’ in 2019, as a means of mobilising museum-driven processes of innovation, transformation and adaptation.
The staff at the Steve Biko Centre are honoured to be participating in the MuseumFutures Africa project. As we are a relatively new museum, the process of engaging with more experienced institutions will help us improve both our museum and our ways of thinking in the heritage sector. Connecting with other museums on the continent provides amazing opportunities and we are excited to participate in the process of rethinking African museums,” says Catherine Stratford, archivist and assistant curator at the Steve Biko Centre.The central tenet of the project is to support museums seeking to drive change within their institutions, via facilitated peer-to-peer learning between and within African Museums. Through intra-African dialogue, co-creation and self-driven study-labs, museums are addressing endemic challenges. The participating institutions are encouraged to form study groups with different stakeholders to find new ways of collecting, researching, mediating and engaging society. A curriculum designed by African practitioners (Abiti Nelson, Tatiana Page and Rebecca Corey) is provided to facilitate this process.