TIME, SPACE AND EMPIRE
Culture& is excited to launch Time, Space and Empire, a cross-arts programme exploring the concepts of time, space, and the development of Britain’s sea power during the expansion of its former empire in relation to the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site in Southeast London and the Potteries in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Programmes include artist interventions in heritage sites, working with community-led organisations to empower underrepresented audiences, and creating research opportunities for diverse talents. The project will also explore how the colonial economy brought changes to what was consumed and considered to be ‘good taste’. More programmes will be announced soon. Please follow us on social media and Subscribe to Culture&’s Newsletter for more information.
On Now
Walking Tour: Stepping Through Time
Display, New Book Events at the Queen’s House
Past Events
The Keeper of All The Secrets Events in Stoke-on-Trent
Performance Lecture: Balfour Reparations (2024-2044) by Farah Saleh
Time, Space and Monumentality Conference
Exhibition: Layered and Interwoven
Walking Tour of Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site |
Stepping Through Time is a collaboration with Smartify that retraces the British Empire in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. You will stroll through Montagu House, the Royal Observatory, the Greenwich Maridian, Maze Hill, Queen’s House, the Old Royal Naval College, the Painted Hall, West Gate Globes, the Cutty Sark, St Alfege Church, and gaze upon Deptford Dockyard. You can access the tour via your browser or download the tour beforehand via the Smartify app. The image on each of the direction stops shows the site you are looking for.
Jacqueline Bishop: The Keeper of All The Secrets |
As part of our continuing Time, Space and Empire programme, Culture& is delighted to be partnering with Royal Museums Greenwich on the acquisition and display of contemporary artist Jacqueline Bishop’s Keeper of All The Secrets at London’s historic Queen’s House from 15 February 2025. Entry to the exhibition is free.
The Keeper of All The Secrets: Ceramic Art, Botanicals and the Caribbean Market Woman – a book containing essays about the artwork, including poems by the artist and an interview, will accompany the display.
Breadfruit and the Creolising of Caribbean Foodways |
| The Queen’s House, Royal Museums Greenwich, Wed 16 July 2025 | 1pm – 1.30pm |
Book a free ticket
Inspired by artist Jacqueline Bishop’s The Keeper of All The Secrets tea service on display in the Queen’s House, this free lunchtime talk historian Jade Lindo will explore the historical and cultural significance of breadfruit in the Caribbean. Jade Lindo will speak about the historical and cultural significance of breadfruit in Caribbean foodways, particularly through the experiences of Black enslaved women. Tracing the spread of breadfruit in the Caribbean from the nineteenth century to the present, Jade’s talk will reveal the intersections between colonial botany, labour, and gender.
Past Events |
Spirits of the Black Meridian
21-24 May 2025, Old Royal Naval College
Immersive outdoor drama and promenade created by Dervish Productions, based on original archival research.
Spirits of the Black Meridian, was a groundbreaking site-specific outdoor theatre production that took place every night from 21st – 24th May 2025 in the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College. This immersive and interactive promenade performance brings to life the hidden stories of Black people in Greenwich, Southeast London, uncovering their influence on British culture, cities, and world views.Working with celebrated historian SI Martin, Dervish Productions masterfully combines history, geography, and astronomy to challenge perceptions and rethink the narratives tied to the iconic Greenwich Meridian.
Stoke-on-Trent
Opening Night & Museum Late: A Long Table on Sugar, Tea, Plants and Pottery
23 August 2024, V&A Wedgwood Collection Welcome Space
We would like to thank everyone who joined us at Culture&’s Time, Space and Empire events in Stoke-on-Trent. Special thanks to V&A Wedgwood Collection, the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Gabriella Gay, and artist Jacqueline Bishop.
On 23 August, the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. The public joined us at the Long Table for discussions exploring Staffordshire’s histories of slavery and abolition with the artist of The Keeper of All The Secrets herself, Jacqueline Bishop as well as a wide range of participants from Stoke-on-Trent and surrounding areas.The Keeper of All The Secrets was featured on the 23 August edition of the Stoke Sentinel. The artworks is on view at V&A Wedgwood Collection until 3 November before travelling to London’s in early 2025.
Jacqueline Bishop: Fauna Poetry Reading & A Long Table on Sugar, Tea, Plants and Pottery
24 August, Potteries Museum and Art Gallery: Entrance and Ceramics Gallery
Visitors joined artist Jacqueline Bishop for a poetry reading with Q&A and lively discussion on the position of black women in Caribbean society explored through her poetry and ceramics. Bishop read from her first collection of poems published in 2006, titled Fauna, which uses Caribbean flowers as metaphors to explore the lives of enslaved women.
Clay Craft and Chat with Emma Price and Gabriella Gay
Saturday 24 August, Potteries Museum and Art Gallery: Entrance and Ceramics Gallery
Take inspiration from Jacqueline Bishop’s work to explore women’s relationship to nature. Experience a short poetry dance film by Cynthia Coady based on the experiences of black and brown women walking in Staffordshire. Take a creative walk with artist Daby Obiechfu and poet Gabriella Gay to collect botanical inspiration to make a cyanotype print on repurposed cotton. There’ll be time for sewing and conversation at the ‘Long Table’. No experience of sewing, embroidery or cyanotype printing needed.
Future Fest: Botanical Walk and Cyanotype Craft Workshops
Saturday 31 August, World of Wedgwood
Artists: Cynthia Coady, Daby Obiechfu, Gabriella Gay, Holly Johnson, Emma Price
Visitors experienced a short poetry dance film by Cynthia Coady based on the experiences of Black and Brown women walking in Staffordshire and took a creative walk with artist Daby Obiechfu and poet Gabriella Gay to collect botanical inspiration to make a cyanotype print on repurposed cotton. The cyanotype print drop-in workshop was lead by artist and milliner Holly Johnson.
London
Performance Lecture: Balfour Reparations (2024-2044) by Farah Saleh
15:00 & 19:00 Friday 13 September 2024, St Alfege Church, London
Balfour Reparations (2024-2044), a performance lecture by Palestinian dancer and choreographer Farah Saleh, took place in St Alfege Church Hall on 13 September 2024. Sound design by Lucas Chih Peng Kao.
The performance lecture investigated ways of confronting the United Kingdom’s colonial legacy in Palestine. In particular, the role of Arthur James Balfour, the country’s Prime Minister (1902-1905), Foreign Secretary (1916-1919). Chancellor and Rector of many prominent UK universities (1886-1930), in the historical denial of Palestinian political rights in their homeland. Saleh layers history, fiction, and fantasy through a lens of Critical Fabrication and Afrofuturism while engaging with and being inspired by archival material, such as documents, photos of historical sites in England, Scotland and Palestine, and videos including Balfour inaugurating the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1925 juxtaposed with Farah as a Palestinian scholar inaugurating decolonisation at a British University in 2024.
4 Sept 2024, University of Greenwich
Through the mediums of lecture,demonstration and performance, Time, Space and Monumentality examined the concept of Monumentality through the lens of ecology, mapping and modelling practices, the history of abolition, architecture, immersive experience and performance.
16 July – 13 Sept 2024, Stephen Lawrence Gallery, University of Greenwich
Artists: Emmanuel Boateng; KV Duong; Funmi Lijadu; Tova McKenzie-Bassant; Anh Nguyen; Divya Sharma
The Panel: Love Hannington, Dr Kesewa John, and Akosua Paries-OseiHERbal Health Workshop by Herbal Hackney
Join Herbal Hackney for this bespoke workshop to mark Women’s History Month.
