Museums Association arrangerade igår en konferens kring hur museer har dokumenterat, följt och förhållit sig till sommarens kravaller i England. Saxat ur introduktionen. Se länk ovan. 

The second session takes place on 4 October looking at how museums document social unrest following the summer’s riots. It will include a talk by Odin Biddulph, the curator of an exhibition at Bruce Castle Museum in north London, about the history of Broadwater Farm, the estate in Tottenham where rioting took place in 1985.

Bidduluph, writing in October’s Museums Journal, said the riots are still a highly sensitive issue from an official point of view, which made developing an exhibition about it very challenging.

“On the one hand, a policeman was brutally killed, three men wrongly charged for murder were later freed after a massive public campaign, and last year the police reopened their investigation,” he said. “On the other hand, residents were cruelly treated by the police and stigmatised by the press. There are many old wounds on both sides.”