Out of many, one museum

This paper draws on the scholarship of contemporary museologists, cultural theorists and other knowledge producers to set out an alternative topography of museum space, as a framework for establishing an African Diaspora Museum in the UK. By specifically foregrounding decolonial and anti-racist praxis and practices, the ‘palimpsest’ of that future space is traced and progressed. These ideas for designing an inclusive museum acknowledge the fragmentary realities of diaspora history, and read ‘against the grain’ of established archival practices, to lay new foundations for place-making and collection development. The collaborative approaches presented in this museum blueprint also propose a radically different, dynamic space, centred on cross-cultural dialogues, learning, self-expression, healing and growth.