Melanesia project
Related events and exhibitions
Art and History in the Solomon Islands. Collections, Owners and
Narratives. 4-5th October 2006
The British Museum holds the largest (about 3,800 objects) and
most important Solomon Islands collection held internationally. In
October 2006, four Solomon Islanders, Evelyn Baines, Michael
Kwa'ioloa, Kenneth Roga and Salome Samou, representing four
different areas of the Solomons Group, came to London for three
weeks, to work on the collection with Liz Bonshek, Sarah Byrne, Ben
Burt, Jill Hasell, and a volunteer, Chris McMahon.
They viewed and documented nearly one third of the collection in
that time. This information will be entered into the British
Museum’s collection database.
The program culminated in the first ever international Solomon
Islands conference: Art and History in the Solomon Islands:
Collections, Owners and Narratives. Approximately 60 people
attended the conference. Delegates came from the Solomon Islands
(about 11 people), Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada, France,
Norway and Taiwan. Delegates from within the UK included people
from Goldsmiths College, Cambridge, Oxford and the University
College, London. Some delegates were funded to attend the
conference by the University of Bergen, Norway, which held another
smaller conference in Bergen in the following week.
The conference procedings will be prepared for publication by
Ben Burt and Lissant Bolton.
For information on the Conference Proceedings, contact Ben Burt
in the Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas: bburt @
thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
North Entrance Display, British Museum, 27 March to May 11
2006
This exhibition displayed the work of Samuel Luguna, Artist in
Residence for the Melanesia Project and Rebecca Jewell, Leverhulme
Artist in Residence for the Melanesia Project. The paintings on
display were all created as a result of interactions by both
artists with the collections. The objects relating to each work
were also displayed at the base of the case.
Artist in Residence for the Melanesia Project: Rebecca
Jewell
With the financial support of the Leverhulme Trust Rebecca
Jewell, who has a PhD from the Royal College of Art in Natural
History Illustration, worked with the Melanesia Project as
Leverhulme Artist in Residence between September 2005 and July
2006. She is continuing to work with the Melanesia Project.
Her drawings and prints explore shared histories between the
Melanesian islanders who made the artefacts, the travellers,
anthropologists and explorers who obtained them, and the museum
which now houses them. In March 2006 she worked with Samuel Luguna
and together they mounted a show of their work in the North
Entrance display cases at the British Museum.
Image: Michael Kwa’ioloa speaking at the
workshop “Art and History in the Solomon Islands. Collections,
Owners and Narratives”