Launched March 8th, 2019.
Insurgents: Redefining Rebellion in Barbados was an initiative by The Barbados Museum & Historical Society, Life In Leggings: Caribbean Alliance Against Gender-based Violence and The Barbados Youth Development Council.
To challenge the popular misinformed belief that Barbadians have historically been passive when it comes to acts of resistance against injustices, Natalie McGuire-Best of BMHS, Ronelle King of LIL and Saamiya Cumberbatch of BYDC proposed a space to highlight and discuss the intrinsic activism of Barbadians as proactive instigators of social change.
Insurgents: Redefining Rebellion In Barbados was curated. It was an interactive exhibition which sought to analyze historical instances of resistance from plantation rebellion to labour and social riots, as well as contemporary sites of activism for Barbadian civil rights.
The main aims of the exhibition were to revise the historical view on Barbadians relationship with activism, to highlight the unique way protesting happens in Barbados and to emphasize the exhibition space as a place of accessible discourse and exchange.
The exhibition ran from 8th March until 31st May 2019, at the Barbados Museum and Historical Society, as well as through the interactive digital campaign #IAmInsurgent
Details About The Exhibit:
- The display was formatted to be accessible for visitors of all physical and learning abilities, with braille signage, multimedia areas and ‘quiet’ encounter areas.
- The emphasis on collaboration in this exhibition extended to working with the local artistic community in creating displays, as well as publicly sourcing content through a community open call.
- Visitor participation was also key– content included contributions from those visiting the space in a variety of mediums from written feedback to a space where they could video log ideas around protest in Barbados.
Life In Leggings: Caribbean Alliance Against Gender-based Violence 