UCL Special Collections – The New Curators Project

Participants from The New Curators project give us an insight into their backgrounds, and their motivation and hopes for this year’s programme.

Felicia Mascarenhas

My name is Felicia Mascarenhas. I love creative arts like crochet and creative writing. I’m looking forward to learning how to express/exhibit stories and cultures through different mediums. I have an interest in all types of mythology and how stories are told through generations. Most importantly, I want to learn more about my hometown, and its people.

Hamish White Henderson

Hi my name is Hamish White Henderson and I am not Scottish. I split my time between Hackney, London and Ongar, Essex- both culturally and geographically. As a result I have a varied set of interests and opinions that regularly contradict on History, Philosophy, Film, Literature, Science Fiction, Experimental Music and obscure Theology. I have what could be described as an insatiable thirst for knowledge but should in fact be referred to as under-specialisation. Never the less I am very enthusiastic about introducing said subjects to the general public, specifically those who would find it difficult to seek knowledge of their own accord.

Jelani Ruddock

Hi, I’m Jelani. I am very passionate about art, history, film and I am looking to pursue a degree in history art at SOAS and later a career in curation. I am currently on an art foundation exploring the way we use art as therapy and the way memory can be realised and explored physically.

Jennifer Gomes

Hello, my name is Jennifer Gomes and I live in Newham! I find myself enthralled by history and mythology; they feed into my love for knowledge about important yet interesting aspects of both human and super-human existence. This paired with my passion for psychology only furthers my excitement about working on a project that delves into the historical and cultural background of Newham.

Matilda Bilon

My name is Matilda Bilon and I’m currently participating in the new curator’s program hosted by UCL. My main focus at the moment is History, and with that, I wish to give detailed attention to personal stories of everyday life in the past. I believe the future of historical research lies in exploring individuals and communities that have been forgotten and neglected by the prism of the historical lens. I hope to explore topics such as working-class and queer history. As well as this I am also passionate about fashion and specifically fashion history, I’m interested in exploring trend cycles and themes that have resurfaced and repeated themselves over and over again. By exploring these trends we can understand major shifts in generational attitudes. I also have an interest in Queer literature from older novels such as Radclyffe Hall’s A Well of Loneliness to more modern fiction such as Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues.

Mars Weir

Hello! My name is Mars and I am a queer musician from Walthamstow. I mainly play bass but can also play guitar, drums, piano and will occasionally sing (but only if I absolutely have to) I spend an alarming amount of time solving rubiks cubes, and I am interested in a career teaching creative subjects!

Kaleem Noor

I am a mixed media artist interested in working as a freelance artist/animator. I am extremely passionate about art and have many creative goals including working on a webcomic and working in the games industry. I have a growing interest in art history as I usually keep my focus on more modern developments in animation. I am looking forward to gaining experience in different sectors of the creative industry overall. 

Shay Spencer-Noronha

My name is Shay Spencer-Noronha and I am fascinated by the cyclical structure of history specifically the ways events through time repeat themselves and what we can learn from these events. The ways in which art and history change and have greatly impacted my life leading to my passion for art history. It’s from this passion that I find it important to examine arts cultural impact and the ways we can use it to enrich our lives.

Check out The New Curators’ exhibition – Breaking The Wall: The Power of Performance – which will be touring Newham’s libraries throughout the month of June.