Marking what would have been Anthony’s 39th birthday (21 February 1987), International Slavery Museum and the Anthony Walker Foundation are bringing together young people from Liverpool schools to create a new space in the museum that will carry Anthony’s name and continue his legacy.
From the opening of International Slavery Museum in 2007, until it closed for redevelopment in 2025, the original Anthony Walker Education Centre served as a safe space for young people to hold conversations, events and participate in workshops, exploring themes within the museum. The centre was inspired by the work of the Anthony Walker Foundation to tackle racism, hate crime and discrimination, and ensure a powerful legacy for Anthony.
When it reopens the reimagined museum will feature new opportunities for people to connect, reflect and discover.
Students from Childwall Sports and Science Academy, Belvedere Academy, St. Hilda’s Church of England High School and Liverpool College are working with teams from International Slavery Museum, and architects, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCBStudios), to represent Liverpool’s young people, and ensure they have a voice in shaping the design of a new education centre, which will once again be named in memory of Anthony.
Claire Benjamin, Head of Learning & Participation, said: “For almost 20 years the Anthony Walker Education Centre welcomed many thousands of young people through its doors. We were proud to name the space after Anthony and with the blessings of his family, and the Anthony Walker Foundation, support their work to explore legacies of racial slavery and the impact it continues to have on young people today.
“As we plan for the future of International Slavery Museum it is an honour to continue this relationship, and a joy to bring the vision and ideas of Liverpool’s young people into the conversation with our brilliant architects, to steer and inform the design.”
Judith Agis, Tackling Racism in Schools Programme Manager, said: “We are grateful to National Museums Liverpool for this opportunity. It not only continues the long-standing partnership between National Museums Liverpool and Anthony Walker Foundation but, by inviting our Tackling Racism in Schools student ambassadors to assist in the redesign of the Anthony Walker Education Centre within the new International Slavery Museum, it also engages the next generation.
“The invited schools – Childwall Sports and Science Academy, Belvedere Academy, St. Hilda’s Church of England High School, and Liverpool College – have shown true commitment and dedication to promote cohesion and a culturally inclusive environment within their schools, supporting their students and aiding our mission to keep Anthony’s memory alive. This opportunity allows their young people to continue this work in a new environment, one that will be used by other young people as a learning space for generations to come.”
Anthony Walker was murdered on 30 July 2005 in a brutal act of racist violence that sent shockwaves throughout the Liverpool city region and beyond. Anthony was only eighteen years old and was in his second year of A-levels. The Anthony Walker Foundation was established in 2006 by Anthony’s family and friends, who did not want his murder to be another statistic and work for his name to live on with a positive lasting legacy.
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International Slavery Museum is expected to reopen to the public in 2029