Rijksmuseum Takes Centre Stage in United Nations Panel on Museums, Slavery & Colonial History
Publication date: 31 March 2023 - 19:01
Last night at the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Rijksmuseum took centre stage in a landmark panel discussion on museums and the Transatlantic slave trade. Rijksmuseum’s General Director Taco Dibbits and Head of History Valika Smeulders were joined by Alissandra Cummins (Director, Barbados Museum & Historical Society) and Richard Benjamin (Head of International Slavery Museum). More than 700 students, UN envoys and members of the public attended the event. The programme marked the conclusion of Rijksmuseum’s exhibition Slavery. Ten True Stories of Dutch Colonial Slavery, which was on display at the United Nations Headquarters over the past five weeks, seen by tens of thousands of diplomats and visitors.
Lecture
The panel discussion was preceded by a lecture by Bryan Stevenson, professor of human rights and director of The Legacy Museum in Montgomery (USA) and Founder & Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative. Additional contributors to the panel discussion include Dutch citizens Susi and Simba Mosis, descendants of Surinamese maroons, enslaved Africans who resisted their oppressors and fled the Dutch plantations in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Exhibition
The exhibition Slavery. Ten True Stories of Dutch Colonial Slavery was hosted by the United Nations as part of the United Nations Outreach Programme on the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery. The exhibition is made possible in part by the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the UN and the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in New York City. The exhibition will also be made available in adapted form for display until 31 December 2024 at other UN offices worldwide.
Lecture and panel Beyond Colonial Histories available on view: https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1t/k1t8sbqrz6.
For further information on Rijksmuseum’s Slavery exhibition: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/press/slavery-exhibition-un
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Susi Mosis, Simba Mosis, Valika Smeulders and Arthur Kibbelaar at the UN. Photo: Chantal Heijnen
General Director of the Rijksmuseum Taco Dibbits during the discussion on the slavery history at the UN. Photo: Chantal Heijnen
Arthur Kibbelaar, Monique Ruhe, Valika Smeulders, Melissa Fleming, Taco Dibbits, Alissandra Cummins, Bryan Stevenson, Susi Mosis, Simba Mosis, Courtenay Rattray and Maher Nasser. Photo: Chantal Heijnen