'Black Atlantic' at the Fitzwilliam Museum - as told by the curator, Dr Victoria Avery

Join us on Thursday 30 November, 5pm - 9pm for a 'Black Atlantic Fitzwilliam Exhibition: Curator's Introduction' followed by a drinks reception and guided tour.

"Black Atlantic: Power, People, Resistance" is a new exhibition about Cambridge's role in the transatlantic slave trade, and how historical slave trading connections to the Fitzwilliam family led to the creation of the city's Fitzwillliam Museum. Acknowledging this story for the first time has led to new discoveries about the objects Fitzwilliam donated, the people who collected them, and the cultures that created them.

Join the co-curator, Dr Victoria Avery, for an illustrated introduction and exclusive curatorial insight at St Mary's School followed by a wine reception, before accompanying her to view the exhibition itself. 

She will explain how historical objects from West Africa, the Caribbean, South America and Europe, were selected alongside modern and contemporary works, to explore histories that have remained untold - histories of exploitation, resilience and of liberation. . Learn about how through the resistance of colonial slavery, people produced new cultures known as the Black Atlantic, that continue to shape our world.

The Black Atlantic stories can help create a fairer future; by rethinking our connected and complex histories and looking again through the lens of contemporary art, tomorrow's story can be one of repair, hope and freedom.

This landmark exhibition, Black Atlantic: The Curator's Introduction, is on Thursday 30 November, 5pm-9pm, at St Mary's School. More information and tickets are available here.

The exhibition itself, at the Fitzwilliam Museum, is free, but visitors will need to book tickets in advance with the museum.