As the island’s official culture agent and custodian of the National Collection, the Institute of Jamaica safeguards and studies objects of material heritage and presents them in permanent and temporary exhibitions. In Our People:Other Worlds we engage a few artefacts from these collections to consider the role of the National Collection. The underlying question posed through these artefacts: to what purpose has the Institute been collecting and is meaning derived from them for our diverse and changing society?.
Have the collections and the exhibition narratives of the Institute of Jamaica been burdened with objects and ideals imbedded in the past? Our People:Other Worlds takes a look, in three sections, for clues of the classifications, truths and personalities that have defined our collections and, primarily through the African Collection, question if they can be presented in ways relevant to the now?.