Co-MammalHub

Co-MammalHub (CMH) is a collaboration between three natural history museums and collections in South Africa, Kenya and Germany. The project was initiated at the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History in Pretoria with the aim of updating its mammal exhibition through artistic and participatory methods, in exchange with the Nairobi National Museum and the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. This developed into a transcontinental programme of events and workshops at all three museum sites, inviting critical and creative engagement with endangered species and natural history collections.

Working with practitioners from the fields of visual and performance art and poetry, CMH develops innovative formats for sharing knowledge informed by artistic research, creative writing, and aesthetic learning. These formats make it possible to explore natural history topics from different perspectives, and to see knowledge not simply as something to be communicated, but as something developed collaboratively with museum visitors.

The project focuses on African rhinos and pangolins. Taking these highly threatened mammals as a starting point, CMH creates interactive spaces through public talks, discussions and artist-led workshops to explore topics such as poaching, the illegal wildlife trade, conservation, and colonial collecting, while also questioning contemporary approaches to museum exhibitions. Building on this shared foundation, each museum develops a site-specific programme that invites visitors to actively participate in the production and communication of knowledge about rhinos and pangolins.

The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, unlike its partner museums, does not have an exhibition dedicated to African wildlife. Instead, the museum focuses on the rhino and pangolin specimens in its research collection, and the history of their acquisition.

Some of the works created during the workshops will be presented at the subsequent museum locations, and incorporated into the redesign of the mammal exhibition at the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History in Pretoria. In this way, it is not only objects and knowledge that travel between the three research museums, but also the perspectives, ideas and experiences of the participating visitors.

The transcontinental exchange between workshop participants, museum professionals, and artists highlights different perspectives, creates opportunities for mutual learning, and explores new forms of collaboration between museums, science, art and the public.

• More about the Co-MammalHub project
• Find out more about the events in Pretoria and Nairobi
• More about TheMuseumsLab CollabFund initiative

Project team

• Dr Annie Antonites (Project Lead) Ditsong National Museum of Natural History, Pretoria, South Africa
• Dr Nicola Grobler, University of Pretoria, South Africa
• Lydia Nafula / Wycliffe Oloo Omondi, Nairobi National Museum, Kenya
• Anita Hermannstädter, Museum of Natural History, Berlin 
• Brandon Kilbourne, evolutionary biologist and poet, Berlin, Germany