On April 21, the four-part workshop series »Decolonization of Museums« kicked off in the Mitte Museum.
Together with the three institutions (Mitte Museum, Botanical Garden / Botanical Museum, Brücke-Museum), which had applied in advance for the workshop series, and twelve museum makers from different institutions in Berlin, we used a concrete example from the work of the Mitte Museums thought about how decolonial museum work can be implemented in practice.
The Mitte Museum has a collection of over 220 historic school murals. Six of them reflect colonialist ideas. Using these objects as examples, strategies for museum classification, presentation and mediation were discussed in this workshop. The day was moderated by Miriam Camara (akoma coaching & consulting). After a professional input from Tahir Della (Initiative Black People in Germany), who spoke about decolonial exhibition practice and the need for an early and sustainable integration of different perspectives and initiatives, decolonial action strategies for the question of the museum were developed in small groups, which were then discussed together.
The project is a collaboration between the Development[s] section of the Dekoloniale Memory Culture in the City and the decolonization competence center of the Berlin City Museum Foundation and the Berliner Museumsverband eV.
As part of the workshop series, one workshop each in the botanical garden / botanical museum and in the bridge museum as well as a final workshop are planned.