It’s generally agreed that a trip to a museum is almost certainly educational, at times entertaining and often enlightening. The fortress-like buildings tend to be full of treasures and objects from all over the world, bringing the past to life in wondrous ways. But have you ever stopped to think how the objects found their way there and what they might say if they could tell their own stories?
In the Museum of Bad Vibes, Hanna Adan explores the cultural & spiritual significance an Akan Gold weight, Benin Bronze, a Chinese Ancestral Tablet and a Papua New Guinean Koi board; learns how they they got to be in some of the UK’s most celebrated museums and asks whether they could or should be returned to their countries and communities of origin.
It’s generally agreed that a trip to a museum is almost certainly educational, at times entertaining and often enlightening. The fortress-like buildings tend to be full of treasures and objects from all over the world, bringing the past to life in wondrous ways. But have you ever stopped to think how the objects found their way there and what they might say if they could tell their own stories?
In the Museum of Bad Vibes, Hanna Adan explores the cultural & spiritual significance an Akan Gold weight, Benin Bronze, a Chinese Ancestral Tablet and a Papua New Guinean Koi board; learns how they they got to be in some of the UK’s most celebrated museums and asks whether they could or should be returned to their countries and communities of origin.
In this series of sonic museum tours, we’ve learnt about four objects currently in storage at various museums in the UK. We’ve addressed themes such as colonialism, theft and cultural erasure and how these have informed the function that museums play in society today.
In this final tour, Hanna Adan speaks to a number of experts in the field to learn how practices can be changed to make museums more inclusive spaces, more effective purveyors of cultural history and more respectful of the objects in their collections, and the communities that they originate from.
Produced and Presented by Hanna Adan With story by George Bailey Assistant Producer and Editor: Kwaku Dapaah-Danquah Researcher: Seyi Bolarin Contributors: Abira Hussein, Zandra Yeaman, Joshua Bell, Chika Okeke-Agulu and Sarah Byrne Production Mentors: Jane Thurlow and Corinna Jones Sound Designer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter Tech Producer: Giles Aspen Executive Producers: Khaliq Meer & Leanne Alie Commissioned for BBC Sounds Audio Lab by Khaliq Meer Artwork by Joshua Obeng-Boateng
