Museum of Colour

About Museum of Colour
Museum of Colour works to change the way arts and heritage are presented, created and experienced by building a digital museum that centres the work of creatives of colour in the UK over 250 years.
Museum of Colour (MoC) is a digital arts and heritage enterprise with a dual purpose. One is to build a museum celebrating the achievements of people of colour in film, television and the arts in the UK, 1766–2016. The other is to work with contemporary artists to respond to British history. By bringing together different perspectives, MoC creates space for nuanced conversations that can shift the narrative of the UK’s arts and national history.
Collaboration is at the heart of every exhibition. Museum of Colour partners with other arts and cultural organisations – including the Bodleian Libraries, the Southbank Centre, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, and Manchester Poetry Library – and supports them to reframe and retell their stories to create a fuller, richer history. Local communities are invited to take part in workshops and to help inform the direction and shape of the exhibition. MoC then commissions artists from the global majority to engage with elements of the exhibition, like stories and artefacts, and to respond to them. The exhibition brings together these different viewpoints and strands of work, resulting in a rich and nuanced discourse that has the power to change how we understand our shared history.
“We should think of The Heritage as a discursive practice. It is one of the ways in which the nation slowly constructs for itself a sort of collective social memory.”
Museum of Colour is the brainchild of Samenua Sesher OBE, who has worked in the arts and culture sector for 30 years. It started with Sesher’s deep desire to celebrate the incredible contributions creatives of colour have made and continue to make to UK arts and culture. It is a crucial response to the historic under-representation of people of colour in the permanent fabric of our heritage world and the underfunding of their work, which she sees as disproportionate to their influence on our cultural lives.
MoC’s digital nature allows them to connect with people all over the world and provides the space, flexibility and participatory capability to bring art forms together in ways that buildings can struggle to do. It enables visitors to choose where and how they take part in the MoC digital experience. Through this online platform, Museum of Colour can amplify the voices of marginalised communities, connect with a global audience and contribute to broader conversations about equity.

Arts research charity People’s Palace Projects incubated Museum of Colour, and a grant from Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Ideas and Pioneers Fund in 2020 helped it to become a Community Interest Company. With support from the Arts Fund, MoC partnered with the Bodleian Libraries and Fusion Arts Oxford to co-curate These Things Matter, an exhibition of contentious objects linked to racial and cultural injustice and colonialism. These items normalised oppression based on assumed racial superiority. The centrepiece was a censored version of the King James Bible, known as the ‘Slave Bible,’ which was made to teach pro-slavery Christianity to enslaved people. This powerful exhibition calls us to consider how and where systemic racism and oppression shows up and plays out both in the past and the present.

Museum of Colour has co-created a number of engaging exhibitions that explore the creative journeys of British people of colour. During the pandemic, their exhibition Respect Due paid tribute to creatives who’ve had a significant impact on contemporary UK arts and culture. Most recently, A Very British Rhythm focused on extraordinary dance artists and choreographers of colour who shaped the dance world in the UK over the course of 250 years. The exhibition allows us to journey through the intricate tapestry of British dance history, influenced by the echoes of colonial power. A Very British Rhythm saw MoC collaborate with the Southbank Centre, Sadler’s Wells and the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds among others. Together they hosted performances, interactive displays and workshops as well as community dance classes.

In 2023, Museum of Colour received a grant of £240,000 through our Arts Fund. The funding will go towards core costs, such as staff salaries and organisational development plans. With this support, MoC will continue to develop their digital platform and their participatory curatorial practices, so that communities have a say in how heritage is interpreted and presented. Most importantly, MoC will keep doing what they do best – exploring the journeys of creatives of colour over the past 250 years and working with artists to bring new perspectives to British heritage. Their work opens important conversations around race and liberation, and contributes to a deeper, more nuanced understanding of our history. By learning from our shared past and holding these complexities, together we can bring about a brighter future.
Find funding
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Arts Fund
Amount: £90,000 to £300,000
Duration: 3 years
Deadline: Details of the next round will be announced soonWe want to support organisations who are working at the intersection of art and social change.