Exhibition to showcase borough's links to slave trade

12.01.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 15th Jun 2007

A new exhibition at the Richmond Council-run Orleans House Gallery this month will reveal local links to the slave trade and explore its lasting legacy in the borough.

Over the last year the Council's Arts Service has worked with individuals and organisations including Twickenham Museum, the Museum of Richmond, the National Trust and Richmond Local Studies Collection on a project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The results will be presented in Parallel Views: Black History in Richmond which opens on Saturday, June 30, at the Twickenham Gallery to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. Visitors will be able to see how profits from the trade helped shape the physical and cultural landscape of the borough and how local people, including black residents, were involved. The show will feature works from the Borough Art Collection alongside a variety of loans and contemporary work. Highlights include the first screening of a new film from Rodreguez King-Dorset, a carnival inspired sculpture from renowned artist, Carl Gabriel, and a textile piece from conceptual artist Sarah Braun. The upper floor of the gallery will be dedicated to the story of slavery in the borough's twin-town of Richmond, Virginia.

Cllr John Coombs, Cabinet Member for Youth, Culture and Leisure on Richmond Council, said:??"This fascinating exhibition for the first time uncovers our links with the slave trade and is part of an ongoing process of discovery. It offers the opportunity to present the Borough Art Collection in a different light - the idyllic 18th Century landscape by Peter Tillemans, for example, shows properties owned by people with links to the trade. The abolition of the slave trade was a hugely significant chapter in our history and I hope this exhibition will encourage people to consider the lasting impression it has had on the borough."