Main section
Tabs Navigation
Tabs
Engaging communities
It is likely the archives service’s collection development policy will include a desire to work closely with communities so the collections are more representative of the area it serves. There is a risk that not having material representing distinct communities is interpreted as a lack of interest, rather than a capacity issue. The two examples below demonstrate what can be achieved through collaboration, with both working to bring communities and archives together.
No Bass Like Home, Brent (2020)
This project put the spotlight on the reggae revolution that emerged from Brent in the 1960s and 1970s. It included recording 100 oral testimonies, the creation of a reggae history map highlighting key locations in Brent’s reggae history; and the No Bass Like Home Online Festival. This content, which is digital in format, features audio and video material, interviews and performances is now held by Brent Archives and Museum providing a resource for future work and creativity.
Stefan Skura, Knowsley (2022)
Some personal papers about Stefan Skura, a Polish national who migrated to England in 1947, were discovered 70 years later at a car-boot sale. For Knowsley Borough of Culture 2022 celebrations, the local authority archive service, which holds the papers, collaborated with Merseyside Polonia, a Polish not-for-profit organisation, on two exhibitions tracking the life of Skura and the composer and pianist, Frederic Chopin – placing their stories in the wider context of Polish history and migration.
The project provided an opportunity for the archive service to make new connections and share the diversity of the collections. Polish volunteers visited the archive and worked together on translating the Skura collection. The collection has attracted new researchers to the archive service and will be exhibited at the Smithy Heritage Centre in Eccleston in St Helen’s which is Borough of Culture in 2023.
Working with volunteers
There is an opportunity to involve members of the community as volunteers to support the work of the archive service, especially when it is likely that many will have participated, supported or attended the events. Co-ordinating the volunteers will be an extra challenge for the archive service, and it will be important to think about how this will figure in your presentation of capacity and resource needs.
Further Resources
- The National Archives’ Guide to Inclusion features inclusive practice and case studies.
- The National Archives’ Collections Development frameworks and guidance can help in updating your collections development policy and plan.
Leveraging a key moment
Competitions to receive funding to run large cultural infrastructure projects such as UK City of Culture recognise the significant economic and social investment into a region that securing the title brings. One consequence of this is the degree to which it becomes the primary focus for the local authority – expediting issues closely associated with the large cultural infrastructure project.
Archiving the large cultural infrastructure project represents a huge opportunity to advocate for the archive service, its needs, and its future development. Archive Service Accreditation and the Resilience Indicator both represent mechanisms for identifying and then aligning the need to develop skills, practices, and technical capacity in response to the challenge of ensuring you have an archive service for the 21st century.
The National Archives assumes local authority archive services would be working towards service improvement within the framework of Archive Service Accreditation, if not currently able to submit an application; for those services that are Places of Deposit for public records, an application is expected. If your archive service is not accredited, the large cultural infrastructure project is an opportunity to use the higher visibility of the archive service to progress key areas of work that will also help an Archive Service Accreditation application. If your archive service is already accredited, it is worth thinking how you can utilise the large cultural infrastructure project to progress areas identified for further improvement.
Evolving perceptions of archives
Carolyn Downs, the Chief Executive at Brent Council, reflected that the year had shown that “cultural programmes can start conversations, trigger emotions and boost confidence and wellbeing across our communities. This is a council that now takes culture seriously.” (Metrolanding, Evaluation Report, p54)
The framework of Archive Service Accreditation can provide an internal focus for the archive service’s development. At the same time, supporting a range of initiatives during delivery of the large cultural infrastructure project will allow the archive service to work with a range of community groups, artists, and academic partners, which can help evolve perceptions about the archive and its collections. An artist, community group, or cohort of volunteers working with the archives, for example, can bring a new or distinct lens to the interpretation of collections, and helps to demonstrate that the collections are for all.
Working with the large cultural infrastructure project volunteer programme (see ‘Volunteers as advocates for the service‘) provides another way of changing awareness and perceptions of what the archive holds and who can use the archive.
It is not just artists or communities who might initiate a heritage-based project. There are many examples of universities contributing in this way, one recent example is described below:
In Living Memory, Lewisham (2022)
Six community-led projects undertook primary research and gathered recollections to celebrate Lewisham’s diversity and heritage. The project, led by Goldsmiths (part of the University of London), empowered members of the community to tell their own stories, presenting them through traditional means as well as artistic and cultural activities and events. An online digital archive has been created and the intention is to deposit the material with the local authority archive service.
See ‘Next steps‘ for further advice on how to gain maximum benefit from your project.