After 18 months of closure and a £15m redevelopment, Manchester Museum will reopen to the public on Saturday.
Alongside the existing collection of about 4.5m objects, from mounted mammals to botanical specimens and fossils, visitors will also be able to explore new spaces and hear diverse, untold stories.
Housed within the two-storey extension is a cluster of new exhibition spaces, including the Lee Kai Hung Chinese culture gallery and the south Asia gallery, developed in partnership with the British Museum.
The galleries, which are co-curated with local collectives and institutions, create room for the museum to question how histories are remembered and retold, and to present them in a different way, something that is a key part of its mission, according to its director, Esme Ward.
“Museums have long told fairly one-dimensional stories, whether that’s from the perspective of the collector, who is usually white and male, or the institution itself,” she said. “But it’s time for a whole host of other perspectives. And that feels very right for Manchester.”
Everyday objects such as ceramics, clothes and CDs are displayed alongside sculptures and taxidermied animals. The stories span from south Asia and China to the UK diaspora; visitors can learn about the forgotten women of the Mughal dynasty through ancient coins and jewellery as well as British Asian sound systems in 21st-century London.
The exhibitions also present global histories through a regional lens, connecting the dots between the textiles industries in Lancashire and China and screening documentary films of tales of migration to the city. Some objects on display, such as a British army uniform, belong to the co-curators themselves.
“We’re part of the University of Manchester so learning and research is in our DNA. But actually the next evolution of that is a real sense of opening up, being more inclusive and hopefully in doing that being much more imaginative,” Ward said.
The colonial foundations of how many of the objects came into the museum’s possession are acknowledged and addressed. One sign invites visitors to consider “how these histories of collecting influence the way south Asia is represented in our museums”.
Having open and active conversations with visitors is important to Ward. “Manchester Museum is born of empire; that’s our reality,” she said. “But we’re unearthing it. For me, all of this is about us really starting to address these often grim histories.
“We’re really good at displaying things but we’re not very good at thinking in public. I think the future is collaborative.”
Anindita Ghosh, professor of modern Indian history at the University of Manchester and co-curator of the south Asia gallery, thinks “the redevelopment is a gamechanger”. She said: “This country has moved a long way from the time when Indians were put on display to where they are displaying themselves. The gaze has been changed.”
Ghosh believes the new display will resonate with the communities of Manchester, which was “built on the resources and labour of south Asia” and has a long history of migration from the Indian subcontinent.
“I think it’s a fantastic way to get the younger generations involved in knowing about their heritage, their past, in ways you’d not find elsewhere like in schools,” she said. “Why would people come to places where they don’t see themselves represented?
“It’s a great treasure trove. I think this is the way forward for museums and how it should be. It’s given voice to the south Asian community in a way no one else has.”
