In pictures: Fitzwilliam Museum’s new slavery exhibition features reflection space created by Soham Village College students
Rise Up: Resistance, Revolution, Abolition, now on at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, tells the story of the fight to end transatlantic slavery, its aftermath and its ongoing legacies.
Drawing on new research, Rise Up is the second in a series of exhibitions and interventions at the Fitz considering how Atlantic enslavement impacted everything, even in landlocked Cambridge.
It follows the exhibition Black Atlantic: Power, People, Resistance staged at the museum in 2023 and also includes a space influenced by school students.
Focusing on the period from 1750 to 1850, the exhibition explores the stories of resistance by individuals and communities from across the Caribbean, Europe and the Americas – through an interrogation of historic objects and artworks in conversation with works by contemporary artists.
Rise Up begins with a focus on Olaudah Equiano, one of the most famous and influential black abolitionists of the 18th century.
After publishing his autobiography in 1789, Equiano spent the rest of his life travelling across Britain to sell copies and promote abolition and black rights.
Equiano’s testimony was vital in the British anti-slavery campaign, which led to the 1807 Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. Equiano and his family lived in Soham.
Fittingly, 18 students from Soham Village College have been involved in Rise Up’s ‘reflection space’, after 12 students took part in last year’s slavery-related project, also at the Fitz.
To create the reflection space, the students teamed up with architectural design studio POoR Collective, who design with and for young people, residents and local communities, to create design concepts for spaces based on the exhibition’s themes.
They met with public programmes colleagues to learn about the role of public engagement before developing a youth-centred activity for the reflection space.
One of the participants from Soham Village College, Femi, explained: “We designed a reflection space as a place where people could go and calm down and further their knowledge after the exhibition, because it was quite heavy.
“So with the reflection space, we had to take into account what we wanted people to feel and what we wanted them to get from the exhibition.”
The students say it was their history teacher, Mr Rainey, who recommended that they get involved.
Another student, Ninh, said: “We did a past project on the slave trade working at the Fitzwilliam last year, so we carried on the project into this segment.”
Lana, who was also involved, said: “What I thought was really useful is that we didn’t just design it, we learnt a lot about it as well.
“We had people come in and teach us about the past and how it also affects the future, because the Fitzwilliam was built off slave profit, which is something interesting to think about…”
Rosanna Evans, learning associate: schools and young people at the Fitzwilliam, notes that the museum has been working with Soham Village College for “more than 12 years”.
She said: “Part of this project was funded by the Arts Council, but also we were lucky to have a really generous donation from Trinity College, which covers lots of the work across learning.
“This has been one of my favourite things I’ve ever worked on; I’ve learnt loads from being involved with it, and we’re trying to do more work with young people to really get their voices in it, rather than it just be for them.
“It’s been a really gratifying project and the students have been amazing to work with.”
The exhibition runs at the Fitzwilliam Museum until 1 June.
