Africa ProgrammeSustainable and
dynamic initiatives 
for exchange and 
skills sharing 

 

Mozambique

The Africa Programme has been working with museums in Maputo and Nampula since 2005. Alongside training workshops focusing on collections care the Programme has also supported Muyehlekete, an international artists’ workshop in association with the Triangle Arts Trust which took place at the Museum of Art and Arte-Mozart centre, Maputo in 2008.

Through the Transforming Arms into Tools (TAE) project, established in 1995 following the end of the civil war, the British Museum has worked with Mozambican artists to acquire contemporary sculptures for its collections. The iconic Throne of Weapons, made by Kester in 2001, is on semi-permanent display at the British Museum and has been lent to numerous venues, including schools, churches and prisons, throughout the UK.

Current Partners

  • National Museum of Art, Maputo

  • National Museum of Ethnography, Nampula

 
Map of Mozambique

Map of Mozambique showing the locations
of partner organisations

 
Ademola Oshin, Jonas Tembe and Afonso Malace with conservation staff at the British Museum, February 2010

Ademola Oshin (National Museum of Art, Nigeria), Jonas Tembe and Afonso Malace (National Museum of Art, Maputo) with conservation staff at the British Museum, February 2010

 

Conservation exchange

The Museum of Art in Maputo holds significant collections of historical and contemporary works on paper, paintings and prints. Two conservation staff have responsibility for these and the ethnographic collections in Maputo and in museums throughout the country.

In 2010 a project was developed to bring together the Mozambican conservators with a Nigerian conservator based at the National Gallery of Art in Lagos as both organisations share environmental and resource challenges and had identified similar needs and priorities for further training.

The three conservators visited the UK for three weeks in February 2010, and spent time learning specific treatment and mounting techniques at the British Museum. They also visited the conservation teams at Tate Modern, the British Library and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London in order to broaden the training opportunity.

 
Workshop team visit to the Museu Nacional de Geologia, Maputo
  • 1

    Workshop team visit to the Museu Nacional de Geologia, Maputo, March 2011

  • 2

    A mural celebrating the unity of mankind made in 1981 by the Mozambique artist Malangatana at the Museu Nacional de Historia Natural, Maputo, March 2011

  • 3

    Workshop team visit to the Museu Nacional de Historia Natural, March 2011

  • 4

    A taxidermy demonstration at the Museu Nacional de Historia Natural, March 2011

  • 5

    left to right Carla Albino Guente (Museu Nacional de Geologia), Cartilha Jose Paunde (Museu da Revolucion) and Assa Judite Ferreira Nogi (Museu Nacional de Historia Natural) practising conservation cleaning techniques, March 2011

  • 6

    Cartilha Jose Paunde (Museu da Revolucion), Assa Judite Ferreira Nogi (Museu Nacional de Historia Natural) learning to make insect traps with Ademola Oshin (National Gallery of Art, Lagos), March 2011

  • 6

    Condition checking sculptures made from de-commissioned arms by local artists, Kester and Fiel Dos Santos in preparation for travel to the UK, March 2011

  • 6

    Ademola Oshin (National Gallery of Art, Lagos) teaching object packing techniques to Cartilha Jose Paunde (Museu da Revolucion), March 2011

 

Cross-cultural skills sharing

In April 2011 the Africa Programme organised a collections care workshop in Maputo with participants invited from four museums in the city: The National Museum of Art, the National Geology Museum, the Natural History Museum and Museum of the Revolution.

The sessions were facilitated by British Museum staff with conservator Ademola Oshin from the National Gallery of Art, Lagos. This presented an excellent opportunity for the two Mozambican conservators to meet their Nigerian counterpart again (see above) and enabled them to continue to share skills and exchange knowledge in a different environment.

The participants visited each other’s museums and identified common challenges. The facilitators encouraged them to develop solutions using local materials and equipment. The workshop included a practical packing project for objects acquired from the Transforming Arms into Tools (TAE) project by the British Museum.