ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role of the curator in the marking of the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade. The bicentenary represented a challenge to various working practices, assumptions and traditional aspects of the curatorial role. As such, curators were placed under a great deal of pressure to accommodate new ways of working. This chapter analyses a challenge to incorporating these innovative working practices as the ‘curatorial complex’ – a raft of ideas and perceptions associated with the function of ‘the curator’. Using interviews with curatorial staff within a variety of institutions, overcoming this complex will be assessed as key in building new relationships and structures amongst museums, communities and visitors.
