Past exhibitions
2012
The Artists' Eye
A Mapping the Change exhibition of artists' work in response to the changes in East London as a result of the 2012 Olympics. These range from artistic impressions of the Olympic site, to photos through peep holes on Hackney building sites, to an abstract piece about workers on the River Lea to a children's animation film of Matchbox toys returning to their old factory.
Visitors will also find out about Hackney's art in open spaces and be among the first to see images of the art specially commissioned for the Olympic Park. This includes Monica Bonvicini's mirrored glass and stainless steel 9 metre letters of the word RUN, Hackney artist Martin Richman's One Whirl made of recycled glass and Fantastic Factology, a series of bench plaques each one with a nugget of knowledge, to inform and inspire for years to come.
Timeline to 2012: September 2009 Timeline to 2012: December 2009
These works by Deanna Jackson come from a series of drawings and paintings that were made one every 8 weeks from early 2009 to the present. It records the building process of the Olympic Site. Each piece has been made from one particular position on the Greenway.
2011
Our African Roots
The whole of humanity has its roots in the great continent of Africa. Civilisation began there. This exhibition explores how Hackney's Africans, from youth to elders, keep and celebrate their own culture in the heart of our city.
Their personal possessions and their stories, along with early maps from the Royal Geographical Society and African objects from the Horniman Museum, will reveal how important it is to retain one's own identity.
As a small child, during the Nigerian Biafran civil war, Maurice Nwokeji survived starvation thanks to the Red Cross. He came to Hackney when he was ten, not used to wearing clothes, never having seen traffic and speaking only Igbo. 'I come from a background of war, starvation, hatred. I was taught to hate from the age of five. I hated all my life and I don't any more. Wow! How good is that!'
Maurice Nwokeji. Photographer Emma Davies
Through an Affectionate Lens
An exhibition of drawings, cartoons and photographs taken by Hackney resident Tony Hall in the 1960s. Tony worked for the Evening Standard and the Sun/News of the World as a political cartoonist.
The photos are rough proofs found in an old tin trunk after his death in 2008. His wife Libby says 'They show not just the affection Tony felt for his neighbours and the streets but also a sense of history. Here are memories of the way we shopped, the way we dressed and of streets wonderfully free of cars.'
East End Boxing Lives
The London Ex Boxers Association presented an exhibition exploring the story of boxing in the East End of London. Visitors were able to find out about the East End's Jewish and black boxers and the discrimination they met along the way. They were also able to read stories about local east End boxers and see some artefacts belonging to boxers such as John Kramer, George Merritt, Ron Cooper, Mickey Pye, Terry Baldock and Terry Spinks.
Anybody wishing to know more about the history of boxing in the East End please contact the London Ex Boxers Association: www.londonexboxers.org.uk
Local young artists made interactive installations, visitors walked with their eyes shut along a tactile path or explored the Treasure Chest of the Imagination. We discovered a Hackney mask maker too! Dennis grew up in Hackney, where, as an 8 year old choir boy at the local church, he ws encouraged to take photos. As a very young man he was the first to take shots of Bob Marley and later made his name as a photographer in the music world. It also featured many objects from the famous Red Cross building in Dalston Lane which has been there since the First World War. Lots of people of all ages spent hours in this exhibition playing games from chess to shove ha'penny, from mahjong to oware, from jenga to chinese chequers, building brick castles, solving riddles and fishing for fish. It all went to show you can have good fun in a museum! With the help of Hackney's Caribbean elders we re-created one room living in Hackney in the 1960s. This exhibition looked back to the origins of the Olympic Games and forwards to the Games coming to Hackney in 2012. We wanted to inspire Hackney children to get involved and to keep fit by showing them the achievements of our local sports men and women. Visitors pedalled old fashioned exercise bikes, did the long jump across the room and stood on a box with a gold medal. You can buy things from all over the world in Hackney, from Turkish baklava, to Jamaican ackee fruit, Ghanaian Kente cloth, Nigerian yams, Polish pierogi and bottles of Vietnamese nuoc nam fish sauce. We told it from the Hackney shopkeeper's point of view and gave the visitor a rich 'shopping' experience. Exhibits from Abolition '07. Commemorating the bicentenary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, Hackney Museum was one of the first in 2007 to explore this subject and its contemporary legacy. This exhibition showed all the ways that people get around Hackney, from the past to the future, from tram to bicycle. It coincided with the opening of the London Overground and looked forward to Hackney's new stations on the new East London Line. Visitors could watch films inside a taxi and make suggestions for alternative names for underground stations. A glittering display of carnival costumes and masks from Hackney's carnival bands. 2010
BodyTalk
A real hands on sensory exhibition for all ages to learn how we tick, whether or not we can see and hear.Reggae Rebels
This exhibition explored the roots of reggae, its journey from Africa to Jamaica and its influence on identity, fashion and music styles. We bring it home to Hackney with memories of local clubs and blues parties. The main feature was a wealth of images of cutting edge reggae musicians from Jamaica, America and London taken from 1970 to 2004 by the influential photographer Dennis Morris.Behind the Mask
A touring exhibition from Glasgow's Mask and Puppet Museum with an extraordinary array of masks from all over the world.2009
Growing Up Black
A wonderful exhibition of cutting edge photographs of Hackney's Caribbean community in the 1960s and 70s taken by renowned photographer Dennis Morris.Life Savers
This was to commemorate the start National Health Service in 1948. With the help of Hackney doctors, nurses, dentists and patients this exhibition set out to show what it meant to be ill, to have a baby or go to the dentist over the past 50 years in Hackney.Games Exchange
2008
Living Under One Roof
This exhibition for Black History Month, celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Empire Windrush's arrival in Britain in 1948.Spirit of Sport
Set up Shop
2007
Abolition '07
Out and About in Hackney
Museum Masquerade
Page updated: 21 May 2012
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