Ensuring that relevant records created during these projects are preserved with an established archive service will extend the legacy of your project and widen its impact. These records include what is created by you and your colleagues designing and running the project, and by those who participate in it. An archive of your large cultural infrastructure project means that future generations can understand what happened, who was involved, and how it created positive change for local places, communities, and individuals.
The archive of any large cultural infrastructure project also evidences the work of creative professionals, community groups, the third sector, business and local government in centring culture, and using it as a way of bringing people together. By working with archivists trained to look after and help people access digital and analogue archives, you will be helping to build future heritage that can be activated many years from now.
This guidance has been able to draw upon the experiences and reflections from archivists, producers, individuals from creative teams and senior managers with responsibility for heritage and culture. This includes colleagues from London Boroughs of Culture (Waltham Forest (2019), Brent (2020), Lewisham (2022) and Croydon (2023)), Cities of Culture (Hull (2017), Coventry (2021) and Bradford (2025), alongside Leeds’ Year of Culture 2023 and colleagues from Knowsley and St Helen’s – two of the five Liverpool City Region Boroughs.