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.
© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London 2024
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London
Spirits of the Black Meridian
Immersive outdoor drama and promenade created by Dervish Productions, based on original archival research.
We are proud to announce the upcoming performances of Spirits of the Black Meridian, a groundbreaking site-specific outdoor theatre production that will take 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.
Created and directed by writer and director Hassan Mahamdallie with a nationally and internationally acclaimed diverse team of creatives, Spirits of the Black Meridian is an evocative journey through time and space, mapping onto the historic landscape of the Royal Naval College and the old Hospital wing beside the Thames. The production breathes life into the submerged voices of the enslaved, freemen and women, sailors, political agitators, adventurers, and colonial subjects who came and settled in the UK.
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. The result is a visually rich and thought-provoking experience that reimagines our collective past and its connection to our present. These are the spirits who walk amongst us unseen.
Black Greenwich Pensioners, Royal Collection Trust © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2020
London | Guided Walking TourStepping Through Time: Walking Tour of Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site
Culture& is excited to launch Stepping Through Time:Walking Tour of Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site, 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. |
London | Display, New Book & Events
Jacqueline Bishop: The Keeper of All The Secrets, at The Queen’s House
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.
Bishop’s powerful and groundbreaking ceramic work engages with the artist’s Jamaican heritage, the traditional Caribbean figure of the market woman and the history of women using plants to control their own bodies to resist enslavement during colonial times.
Scroll down for parallel events to the display exploring African Caribbean traditions of using herbs for health and wellbeing.
The story behind… The Keeper of All The Secrets
Watch the conversation between artist Jacqueline Bishop and historian Stella Dadzie about the influences behind ‘The Keeper of All The Secrets’.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. The publication is now available to order.
Past Events |
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Talk: Bodily Autonomy – A right not an ideology Join us for a panel discussion as we explore the significance of bodily autonomy and why for women, especially Black and Indigenous women, reclaiming knowledge of our cycles, fertility, and traditional reproductive practices is crucial if we want to have power and ownership over our bodies. Inspired by artist Jacqueline Bishop’s The Keeper of All The Secrets tea service on display in the Queen’s House, the discussion will cover:
 The Panel: Love Hannington, Dr Kesewa John, and Akosua Paries-Osei
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HERbal Health Workshop by Herbal Hackney
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Join Herbal Hackney for this bespoke workshop to mark Women’s History Month.
Sips of Wisdom Workshop
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Celebrating the knowledge of African Caribbean herbs for women’s health
Stoke-on-TrentOpening 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. Photo Credit: Sonska Studio. |
Stoke-on-TrentJacqueline Bishop: Fauna Poetry Reading 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. |
Stoke-on-TrentA Long Table on Sugar, Tea, Plants and Pottery 24 August, Potteries Museum and Art Gallery: Entrance and Ceramics Gallery  The public joined the artist of The Keeper of All The Secrets herself, Jacqueline Bishopat, at the Long Table for discussions exploring the broad theme of exchanging knowledge: Sugar, tea , plants and pottery. Photo Credit: Sonska Studio. |
Stoke-on-TrentClay 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. Inspired by Jacqueline Bishop’s new ceramic display we’ll use recycled fabric, flora and photo negatives to create a cyanotype print in this drop-in workshop. Explore pattern and composition in this exciting process with artist and milliner Holly Johnson. Photo Credit: Sonska Studio. |
Stoke-on-TrentFuture Fest: Botanical Walk and Cyanotype Craft Workshops Saturday 31 August, World of WedgwoodArtists: Cynthia Coady, Daby Obiechfu, Gabriella Gay, Holly Johnson, Emma Price  As part of Time, Space and Empire, the workshops took inspiration from Jacqueline Bishop’s work to explore women’s relationship to nature. 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. Photo Credit: Sonska Studio. |
LondonPerformance Lecture: Balfour Reparations (2024-2044) by Farah Saleh 15:00 & 19:00 Friday 13 September 2024, St Alfege Church, SE10 9JT, London
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. Photo Credit: Sonska Studio. |
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4 Sept 2024, University of Greenwich
Special thanks to David Waterworth, Binki Taylor, Dr Nathaniel Adam Tobias 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. Photo Credit: Sonska Studio.  Photo Credit: Sonska Studio. |
London16 July – 13 Sept 2024, Stephen Lawrence Gallery, University of Greenwich Artists: Emmanuel Boateng; KV Duong; Funmi Lijadu; Tova McKenzie-Bassant; Anh Nguyen; Divya Sharma
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Photo Credit: Sonska Studio.
