Sara Wajid
Head of Engagement, Museum of London
Sara Wajid, is Head of Engagement at Museum of London working on the development of the new museum.
As a recipient of the Arts Council ‘Change Maker’ award to promote diverse arts leaders, she spent a year as Head of Interpretation at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
Before working in museums she was a cultural commentator and journalist. She is a trustee of the Pitt Rivers Museum and the founder of Museum Detox network of BAME museum workers.
Connect with Sara:
Speaking at...
Decolonising Display
MuseumNext London
The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)
The experimental StoryLab prototyping display at Birmingham Museum and the inaugural display, The Past is Now. Museum workers collaborated with local BAME cultural activists with a strong record of challenging museums directly.
Through many deeply uncomfortable conversations we forged a radical narrative approach to display inspired by Brooklyn Museum and Art Gallery that put Black audiences at the centre and questioned the colonial record of the city’s godfather.
The activist co-curators took control of the exhibition narrative when they rewrote text panels drafted by museum curators to emphasise a Decolonising perspective.
A multicultural team with specialist expertise in histories of Empire was recruited for the project, which sought to demonstrate that diverse workforces deliver better creative results and bolder collaborations.