Abstract
AbstractThis paper charts an on‐going process emerging from a collaborative project between Manchester Art Gallery, and early childhood researchers and practitioners, who are currently working together to develop a new learning space for families. It revolves around the potential of exhibiting a collection of bonbonnieres in this space. These little 18th Century pots, originally filled with sweets or breath mints, are colourful and depict fanciful animals that have an almost cartoon like quality that may resonate with younger children. Yet the contents that once lay inside would have been cut from plantations by the hands of enslaved people. Sugar, in all its sweetness, is intrinsically linked to Britain’s colonial history. Sections of a poem by Tina Otito Tamsho‐Thomas (http://revealinghistories.org.uk/smoking‐drinking‐and‐the‐british‐sweet‐tooth/objects/bonbonniere.html) are emplaced throughout to unambiguously contextualise the bonbonniere as a symbol of enslavement legacy, sugar trade history and British colonialism. Today, excess sugar consumption sits at the heart of the healthy eating agenda, a key priority area for local early years providers. In this paper, textual ‘fragments’ act as provocations in a series of interdisciplinary conversations that were initiated as a strategy to unsettle the positions of the institution and its curators, educators and practitioners, opening up discursive thinking about the potential of this particular object‐space ensemble. By considering these bonbonnieres as ‘vibrant matter’ (Bennett, 2010) that can affect and be affected within the gallery space (Tolia‐Kelly, 2016) we ask questions about how these objects might sit alongside the daily interactions that occur in the space in a way that opens up ‘discomfort zones’.
Highlights
In order to produce ‘dewalling atmospheres’ (2016, 1004) in public spaces, Vrastri and Dayal suggest that we must become aware of the “class and colonial dimensions of many of the taken for granted and innocently functional arrangements operative in Western liberal societies, from the ideal of responsible citizenship/subjecthood to the rules of assessment, etiquette, and advancement, guarding access to our institutions and fields of action, as well as the values promoted in our normative discourses and the desires perpetuated in our ‘structures of feeling’ (Williams 1977, 128–135).’’ (2016, 1004)This paper charts an on-going collaborative project between Manchester Art Gallery (MAG), and early childhood researchers and practitioners, currently working together to develop a new learning space for families
Sections of Bonbonniere - a poem by Tina Otito Tamsho-Thomas are interwoven throughout the text, in order to unambiguously contextualise the bonbonniere as a symbol of enslavement legacy, sugar trade history and British colonialism and to raise awareness of reparations, global equality, racial justice and human rights
As the bonbonnieres began to draw our attention, and inspired by this SI call, we extended our discussions to include curators from the gallery who had information to share about the objects and their history and freelance advisors and artists who work to engage audiences with these objects
Summary
In order to produce ‘dewalling atmospheres’ (2016, 1004) in public spaces, Vrastri and Dayal suggest that we must become aware of the “class and colonial dimensions of many of the taken for granted and innocently functional arrangements operative in Western liberal societies, from the ideal of responsible citizenship/subjecthood to the rules of assessment, etiquette, and advancement, guarding access to our institutions and fields of action, as well as the values promoted in our normative discourses and the desires perpetuated in our ‘structures of feeling’ (Williams 1977, 128–135).’’ (2016, 1004). As part of her research for this paper, Tina visited the British Library and she noted these words accompanying the ‘Our Treasures’ Exhibition : ‘We aim to use these collections to advance knowledge about colonialism and slavery and in doing so contribute to the elimination of their racist legacy in the world’ This raised questions for us of how the bonbonnieres could be used in the new family learning space to raise awareness and activate change around sugar and healthy eating, at the same time as honouring these intentions. Alongside this we sense ruptures of colonial history and legacies inscribed in museum and gallery exhibits Keeping these tensions in play we feel our way into the complexity of MAG’s new agenda, as they work to continually open up the gallery to Sure Start, health visiting teams and the Change4life and healthy eating agendas. Questions of affective atmosphere and hospitality are central to creating a welcoming space in the gallery for families and young children
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