Ishaq Mohammad Bello

Biography

Ishaq joined the National Museum, Kaduna in 2000 where he continues to work today. In 2008 he completed a post-graduate diploma in Museology in Jos. When Ishaq came on the ITP in 2012 he was the Programme Officer, in charge of outreach, guided tours, seminars / workshops, training and children’s programmes such as the Holiday Art Club. In this role Ishaq also chaired various committees, seminars, workshops and museum day events.

Since the ITP Ishaq was the first presenter of the International Museum Day at National Museum Kaduna in 2013, delivering a paper on Museums (Memory + Creativity) = Social Change. He is also Chairman of the first committee on fund raising and publicity from 2013 to date. ‎In 2014 Ishaq facilitated a Train the Trainer workshop for a Social Studies Teachers group in 2014. In 2015 he ran this training for a group of fine art teachers. Ishaq has been working hard to work with communites and institutions outside of the museum, he has put on painting competitions for children with disabilities, shared museum skills with military personnel, shared skills at the Arewa House Museum and became a fellow of the American Alliance of Museums. In 2016 Ishaq was a AAM-Getty international program fellow.

At the British Museum
During his time on the International Training Programme in 2012, Ishaq was based in the Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas and his partner placement was spent at Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives.

In 2012, an element of the programme was a series of presentations, in which groups of participants presented a 10-minute illustrated talk, prompted by the task to consider a new display at the British Museum. Ishaq’s exhibition project proposal was entitled The Game with Many Names.

Legacy Projects
In November 2015 Ishaq attended the ITP Mumbai Workshop Creating Museums of World Stories. The workshop was held at CSMVS and was attended by many ITP fellows from different years and countries, UK partners and British Museum Colleagues. Workshop delegates were split into groups of mixed nationality and asked to create exhibition proposals based on the concept of Your city and the world – examining how national and international stories are interconnected, through the lens of material culture. Ishaq’s team from Delhi, Kenya, Mumbai, Nigeria, Jerusalem and UK, chose Bristol and the idea of migration and invisible communities as their project.

In 2016 Ishaq attended the Museum Association Conference in Glasgow with the ITP team and the fellows he worked with at the Mumbai Workshop. After the conference the group travelled to Bristol Museum & Art Gallery to begin working on their project and creating an online exhibition. The Bristol Online Exhibition was completed in 2018.

In 2021 Ishaq was awarded an ITP Research Grant to look at The Effect of Cultural Heritage on Peace Building In Nigeria: A study of National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Nigeria.

ITP Newsletter Publications
ITP Newsletter Issue 4 (2017), Your collection in focus: Nok culture within the context of Nigerian art traditions
ITP Newsletter Issue 4 (2017), Bulletin Board
ITP Newsletter Issue 5 (2018), Your collection in focus: Focus on the National Museum, Kaduna, Nigeria
ITP Newsletter Issue 5 (2018), Bulletin Board
ITP Newsletter Issue 6 (2019), Your collection in focus: Digitally complementing an exhibition in Kaduna
ITP Newsletter Issue 6 (2019), Bulletin Board
ITP Newsletter Issue 7 (2020), Your collection in focus: Glamour as the National Commission for Museums & Monuments Kaduna, Nigeria receives a stolen Nok terracotta from France
ITP Newsletter Issue 8 (2021) Museum responses to COVID: National Museum Kaduna
ITP Newsletter Issue 8 (2021) Bulletin Board