Thank you very much. My 3x great grandparents, the Penrys, had a beer and coffee house at Red Lion Court/Alley Spitalfields. Is this the site of the , possible, Playhouse? Regards, Jan

The first podcast of 2023 (recorded in 2022 - all references to open days etc. are from December - please email Charlotte c.frearson@ucl.ac.uk for up to date information).

Johanna Zetterstrom-Sharp is recently appointed Associate Professor in Heritage at UCL’s Institute of Archeology. Prior to this, she was Senior Curator of Anthropology at the Horniman Museum, Lecturer in Anthropology at Goldsmiths, and has over 10 years of experience working in museums. The focus of her museum practice is opening up museum collections to community-led research and projects. Her research explores mid-century museum practice, and its intersection with colonialism, as well as the colonial history and inheritance of milk and dairy.

Parkaeology with Dr Johanna Zetterstrom-Sharp

Lorna Webb joins the podcast for a look at how women are represented in Early Medieval/ Old English literature for Women's History Month! We talk about Beowulf (obviously) and Lorna makes host Emily try to answer some rather rude riddles. You might be surprised at the breadth of female representation on display!

You can find more Medieval musings from Lorna in her Medieval Corner: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology-south-east/lornas-medieval-corner

Transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology-south-east/sites/archaeology_south_east/files/asedd_ep11_lorna_webb_transcript.docx

Episode 11 - Women's (Medieval) History Month, with Lorna Webb

Only Collections in The Building is a podcast series by researcher and museum activist Heba Abd el Gawad, and Associate Professor Johanna Zetterstrom-Sharp, as part of UCL’s Institute of Archaeology AHRC funded Mobilising Collections for Institutional Change: Egypt at the Horniman’ project.
 
Activists, artists, and indigenous practitioners are being invited to intervene in or disrupt museum spaces with the aim to bring change. But meaningful collaboration relies on much larger structural or professional changes that they rarely have the power to implement.
 
There is so much talk about museums, decolonisation, and social justice, but very little that is grounded in the day-to-day work of structural change and how it impacts the people who are relied on to implement it. It is in this everyday work that relationships can breakdown. Rather than having a breakdown, we will ask what it means in practice to put people before collections by sharing our experience working together on All Eyes on Her! (https://www.horniman.ac.uk/project/all-eyes-on-her/), a community-collaborative exhibition at the Horniman.
 
This series is produced by Maria Christodoulou, creator of From Root to Vine.
 
Episode 1 uses a packet of scarf pins from the 1990s to explore how everyday resistance is hidden through museum practice.

Episode 1: Unpinning Colonialism "Only Collections in the Building"

Only Collections in the Building Episode 2: I don’t accept Horniman’s gift.

What does it mean to be generous, when that generosity is built on the exploitation of others?

In this episode we explore the limits of good intentions and how inherited stories of public generosity impact on our ability to tell truthful histories in the present.

The Horniman in South London takes its name from Frederick Horniman, a liberal MP, abolitionist and a Quaker. He is a man remembered in the Horniman’s institutional aims for his founding gift to the people of London in 1901. Horniman’s gift included his collections, a considerable plot of land, and money to build a new Museum that would “bring the world to forest hill”. 

But this world was a colonial one, and Horniman was a tea trader. It is a world that enabled this liberal man and others like him to travel widely, build imperial connections and drive significant profit margins, all without recognition of the labour, entitlement and exploitation that underpinned it.

Only Collections in The Building is a podcast series by researcher and museum activist Heba Abd el Gawad, and Associate Professor Johanna Zetterstrom-Sharp, as part of UCL’s Institute of Archaeology AHRC funded Mobilising Collections for Institutional Change: Egypt at the Horniman’ project. In this episode we also speak to Nathalie Cooper, PhD student at the University of Warwick.

The series is produced by Maria Christodoulou, creator of From Root to Vine.

Episode 2: I Don't Accept Horniman's Gift "Only Collections in the Building"

Only Collections in the Building Episode 3: Money, money, money....
Money is both one of the most frequent reasons that tensions arise through work with external collaborators, yet at the same time a direct conversation that we often avoid. Episode 3 of Only Collections in the Building drills down into the decisions made about where money is spent, and how perceptions of museums as well funded institutions impact on trust. 
In this episode we explore the procedures that surround money, and how they reinscribe power. 
This includes how the legal language of contracts is underpinned by assumptions around institutional ownership, and how financial agreements impact on rights to refuse. We ask to what extent the financial year and the deadlines that fall during spring-time respect a Global calendar, considering, for example, the holy month of Ramadan.
How can we have honest conversations about money on a more human level, considering both the inequalities in the allocation of money, and the financial transactions that surround it?

Episode 3: Money, money, money….."Only Collections in the Building"

Only Collections in the Building Episode 4: Missed Translations
Language is particularly important when we are discussing, working with and interpreting collections. The assumption that everybody can engage equally in a language that is not the one they are most comfortable with, is one that reinscribes inequality. 
In this episode we will reflect on how difficult it can be to disrupt or challenge English-centred work. Johanna and Heba are in conversation with Navjot Mangat, Senior Curator of Social Practice at the Horniman, who shares his multi-lingual curatorial approach for 茶, चाय, Tea. We also hear from Dr Mariam Aboelezz, Lecturer in Arabic Translation Studies, at the University of Liverpool. 
Together we will explore why translation and de-centring of English is important, the structural challenges we have faced in projects that have sought to do this, and what better practice might look like.

Episode 4: Missed Translations "Only Collections in the Building"

Rather than risky places, you may be more likely to think about museums quiet and conservative spaces, ultimately resistant to change or transformation. However risk, and the perception of risk, dominates museum work in some quite fundamental ways.
One of the most obvious ways in which risk dictates museum process and practice is through the management of risks to collections. 
However in this episode we focus on reputational risk at an institutional level, and the unspoken emotional risks that community members and collaborators take when they work with museums. Attending to the present moment, institutional silences relating to Palestine, and the impact on All Eyes on Her, we explore the current climate of silence, self-censorship and the politics of solidarity.

Episode 5: Solidarity and Risk "Only Collections in the Building"

Archaeologists from UCL's Archaeology South-East recently found the possible remains of the Red Lion Playhouse, the earliest purpose-built playhouse in London. Emily talks to Stephen White, the archaeologist leading the excavations at Whitechapel Central, about the excavation, what evidence there is for the playhouse, and what work is still to be done as we move into the next phase of the analysis!

See the news story about the Red Lion discovery: https://bit.ly/38KYZol

Don't forget to check out the 3D model of the timber structure (the possible stage of the Red Lion playhouse): https://skfb.ly/6T6Rx

Follow Stephen on twitter @stevejameswhite

Episode 1 - The Red Lion Playhouse, with Stephen White

Archaeology South-East is the commercial branch of UCL's Institute of Archaeology.
Our Digs Deeper podcast takes you into the world of development-led archaeology, whether that be discussing a new archaeological discovery, talking to our archaeologists about their day-to-day roles, demystifying the archaeological process or tackling issues affecting our sector.

Episode 1 - The Red Lion Playhouse, with Stephen White

UCL Archaeology South-East

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