The International Slavery Museum, Liverpool

The International Slavery Museum (ISM) evolved from the acclaimed Transatlantic Slavery Gallery, which opened in 1994 in the Merseyside Maritime Museum. The Gallery was the first of its kind in the world and achieved huge visitor figures and impact, but there became a pressing need to tell a bigger story because of its relevance to contemporary issues, and National Museums Liverpool felt that the importance of the subject matter called for a dedicated museum.

ISM has three main galleries covering over 1000sqm on the following themes:

• Introduction and Life in West Africa – which contextualises the story of transatlantic slavery within the wider issues of freedom and enslavement, and explores the story of Africa and its peoples.
• Enslavement and the Middle Passage - exploring the origins and operation of the trade, revealing some of the brutality and trauma suffered by enslaved Africans on their voyage across the Atlantic and the on-going misery endured through life on the plantations.
• Legacy of slavery – which details both the contemporary impact of transatlantic slavery, such as racism and discrimination, and the positive contributions and achievements of the African Diaspora.

The introduction of an in-depth gallery looking at contemporary legacies of slavery is an unprecedented approach. Critically, ISM brings the history of transatlantic slavery into a contemporary context, making strong links to issues within modern society. It is both a historical and contemporary museum and supports the national curriculum in subjects such as history, but also citizenship.

ISM is providing a tool for National Museums Liverpool’s pioneering education programmes, such as Make the Link, Break the Chain and the Theatre in Education project developed in partnership with the Anthony Walker Foundation, ensuring that the key messages from the gallery are continually reinforced in schools and the community. Through international partnerships, for example with Anti-Slavery International, Amnesty International, Plan International, Smithsonian Institution and Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition, ISM will continue to have a lasting legacy via the international contemporary slavery project work it develops.

National Museums Liverpool aspire for the ISM to become one of the world's leading human rights institutions. In 2010 the International Slavery Museum Research Institute and Education Centre will open in the Dock Traffic office adjacent to the Merseyside Maritime, connected to the Legacy gallery by an enclosed glass bridge. The Research Institute, established in partnership with the University of Liverpool, will focus on transatlantic slavery while offering opportunities for comparative studies and public programming that will explore wider aspects of slavery, both geographically and historically. The Education Centre will work in partnership with communities to host a diverse programme of public events, and will include exhibition space within which contemporary slavery issues will be further explored.

Some of your comments:

The International Slavery Museum is mind-blowing in its broad approach to the subject of the centuries of the enslavement of African peoples, showing as it does the full and horrific detail of the Slave Trade, and its consequences for Africa and people in the African Diaspora. The ISM shows how the African trade was pivotal in the development of the Industrial Revolution in the UK, and the contribution which African people made to European Culture and Art. The history is presented in a variety of ways, on the many visits I've made I have seen people from 8 to eighty engrossed in the displays. The ISM has brought a whole new dimension to British history and shows how much more there is to be researched and how much we have to learn about African people and their part in British history from early times.
Dorothy Kuya, Liverpool

I found visiting the museum to be a very moving experience. The strength of the documentary and archive material speaks for itself. In addition, the material has been handled with tremendous sensitivity and vision, providing a positive message around the individual and collective will to overcome overwhelming adversity and repression. Given the role of the port of Liverpool in the slave trade, the location is highly appropriate. The celebration of Diaspora culture provides a life-affirming counterbalance to the history of suffering, and the grim iconology of the slavers and the Klan. The decision to include the Klan outfit was, of itself, particularly courageous, showing the perpetrators of racism to be menacing, but also ridiculous. In a global setting in which contemporary slavery thrives, and yet remains very much shrouded in secrecy, the content of the museum is pertinent and topical. The educational benefits for young people and teenagers in particular are boundless.
I take great pleasure in commending the excellent work of the museum.
Dr Mick Wilkinson, Hull

As the only city currently that has given an unreserved apology for the role it played in the transatlantic slave trade it is only fitting that the city should be the first to create an International Slavery Museum. The Museum provides great opportunities to raise awareness of past atrocities and the impact the slave trade had on the African Diaspora, but also tackles the current global issue of slavery. The International Slavery Museum deserves to win because of its contribution to tackling these issues.
Kim Johnson, Liverpool

The International Slavery Museum, Liverpool is unique. Its design and presentation is engaging and thought-provoking giving the wider audience the opportunity to reflect on our history - a history of how we became what we are in a form little seen or known today in the world. Every one who visits the Museum feels connected with it. Liverpool is winning the argument and should win the ART FUND PRIZE.
Chief Angus Chukuemeka, Liverpool

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