In this ICOM Talk, Zandra Yeaman talked about her work as Curator of Discomfot at The Huntarian in Glasgow, Scotland's oldest public museum. Yeaman uses museum collections to tell stories that no longer start from the perspective of the coloniser, but rather acknowledge and represent our shared history. She focused on the internationally awarded anti-racism programme 'Curating Discomfort' (2021) and the follow-up project ‘Power in This Place: Unfinished Conversations’ (2022-2025), that was set up to further develop the process of change at The Hunterian.
Revisit this Talk
'Curating Discomfort' puts forward discomforting provocations and interventions to help us to think critically about colonial systems [...]. Systems that use ideologies to justify the eslavement and colonisation of peoples and lands around the world.'
- Zandra Yeaman
About the speaker
Zandra Yeaman is the Curator of Discomfort and Head of Strategy, Development and Implementation at the Hunterian Museum. She has a background in anti-racist activism in Scotland, working for social justice and equality. For more than a decade, she has assisted the Scottish arts and heritage sector to question working practices and develop cultures and practices of leadership that understand systems of intersectional oppressions and power inequalities. She currently contributes to strategic planning, including challenging existing models, driving action and developing a culture of innovative engagement to enable fundamental and permanent re-alignment around anti-racism and equality practices.