Inspired by this year’s theme of ‘300 years of natural and built design’, our Curator and Creative Producer for 2023, Melanie Abrahams, shares her ambitions for the Black Chiswick through History project, to explore, question and imaginatively respond to our collection. 

Melanie Abrahams is a curator and producer who has worked both nationally and internationally, for over 20 years, to initiate events, festivals and projects, both independently and as Creative Director of arts organisation Renaissance One. Her contributions were recognised through an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Society of Literature in 2020, a Women to Watch award and a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts.   

Melanie was a curator and consultant for the national Windrush Monument, unveiled at Waterloo station in June 2022, with Up Projects. She has held guest curator roles over the years with many organisations including Museum of Colour, Bluecoat, Paradiso Amsterdam, Carnival Village and the Bronte Parsonage and Museum.  

She joins Chiswick House & Gardens Trust as Curator and Creative Producer for our ongoing Black Chiswick through History project, working with Chiswick School, Hogarth Youth and Community Centre and Hounslow Action for Youth to understand our history through a diversity of voices and perspectives.   

My role as Curator and Creative Producer 

As Curator and Creative Producer of the Black Chiswick through History Project I will be working with the Chiswick House & Gardens Trust team, Lead Researcher, Nadege Forde-Vidal, artists and community partners, to look curiously and deeply at the House and Garden’s collections.  

I am particularly excited to be partnering closely with local artists and the community to explore, question and imaginatively respond to the collection.

Through a careful selection of a few objects, I will shape an arts and cultural programme that reframes and repositions local history through a diversity of perspectives and voices. We are linking our historical and cultural connections and existences that have not been previously connected.  

My connection with the Chiswick community 

As someone born in South London, with parents from the Caribbean who joined together in West London in the 60s as part of the evolving Windrush Generation, I feel somewhat emotionally equipped, as well as stirred, to be here in this distinctive part of Hounslow with its lively mix of communities, people and artists. 

In the 90s and 00’s I visited friends in the Turnham Green and Chiswick area, and more recently, I regularly went on local strolls, talks and visits with the late poet James Berry and his partner, the education pioneer and teacher Myra Barrs.  

What are you looking forward to achieving through this project? 

I am excited about bringing people and possibilities together through a programme of events that can mark and celebrate the rich heritage of Chiswick House & Gardens. I look forward to presenting some of the diverse stories and historical characters that are less well known.  

This project presents an opportunity to explore and showcase the confluence of 300 years of resplendent design and hybridity of cultures, themes and people linked to the House and Gardens.  

For me, it’s about revealing and reflecting what’s there in a way that we can all progress from, whether it is through greater knowledge or understanding, through innovation and creation and/or through making better connections.

What do you hope people will experience through the Black Chiswick through History project? 

I hope that participants in the project, and visitors to the House and Gardens, will have the opportunity to be moved and to experience quality art and culture that resonates with them. I want participants to feel that there are social possibilities, and they feel connected to their community through memorable interactions. 

The creative work produced by the young people in response to the ‘300 years of natural and built design’ theme and their selected objects will be on display in the House when it re-opens to the public in May.  

The Black Chiswick through History project aims to share and enrich the stories we tell for everyone.  

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These projects are kindly funded by: