Welcome!

A huge welcome to The Mixed Museum! After a long time in the making, we are delighted to finally launch our new website and embark on our plans for this next exciting stage in the Museum’s journey.

You join us now as we transition the Museum from an end of academic project website called the Mix-d Museum – created thanks to funding from the Arts and Humanities Council’s (AHRC) Digital Transformation scheme – to The Mixed Museum, a non-profit social enterprise organisation seeking to preserve and share the history of racial mixing in Britain for future generations.

Our work is firmly located in the wider movement to have the longstanding presence of Black and ethnic minority people in Britain better recognised in the public sphere, as well as to reframe Black and ethnic minority history as part of, not separate to, British history. We seek to do this through a wide range of outputs. Some of these, such as our special exhibitions, are available now. In 2019 we collaborated with two partners to produce in-depth looks on two topics: ‘Mixed Race Irish Families in Britain’ (produced with The Association of Mixed Race Irish (AMRI)) and ‘Brown Babies: the children born to Black GIs and white British women during WW2’, produced with Professor Lucy Bland of Anglia Ruskin University (ARU). Some of our outputs are being developed. Our old Mix-d Museum Timeline is currently being redesigned and rewritten to include more entries and more images, some produced by interns and volunteers.

We have also launched our YouTube channel where will be showcasing the history of racial mixing in Britain in short video form. And you can also follow the Museum across our social media platforms – Twitter, Instagram and Facebook – where we feature potted histories alongside news of our developments and events. Our newsletter will also be launching shortly where, once signed up, you can receive news of our developments and activities directly to your inbox.

As we celebrate our new page, we also need to thank our original founding team, partners and supporters without whom the Museum would not have survived, let alone developed into its new form. So much is owed to the generosity of Bradley Lincoln of Mix-d – now the founder of FYC - who continued to host the Museum after the AHRC funding ended and who has provided invaluable business advice during its transition, and to Dr Peter Aspinall, Reader Emeritus of the University of Kent, who has donated hours of his time and expertise to guiding the direction of the Museum as well as its content. We are delighted that both these founding members will be staying on as part of the Museum’s Advisory Group, helping to steer the Museum’s through its next phase and, in Peter’s case, continuing to contribute to our content.

Many thanks also to Ivy Park Media – our initial website developers – who so brilliantly brought our original vision of the Timeline to life, and to Jim McCormick who has expertly taken over the helm of our web development and is helping us create our wonderful, exciting and innovative new platform. The Museum has also been privileged to have many friends, supporters and volunteers along the way to whom we owe an enormous debt of gratitude - we are so appreciative of you all. In particular, we would like to thank Conrad Bryan of AMRI without whose generosity and support this new version of the Museum would be unlikely to exist.

We hope you will enjoy the Museum and, if you are new to us, that you will consider subscribing to our newsletter, following us on our social media platforms, or supporting us with a donation. As a non-profit social enterprise, all our funding and revenue is invested back into the Museum to support our infrastructure, research and photo permission costs. If you would like to contribute to our work preserving and sharing the history of racial mixing in Britain, visit our Ko-fi page to learn more about making a donation. And please feel free to contact us any time with your questions and feedback at: info@mixedmuseum.org.uk

Dr Chamion Caballero, Director of The Mixed Museum