The archive will be for anybody to access and use (there may be some restrictions due to copyright and data protection). The archivist will catalogue the material, describing the content and placing it in context, information that will help users locate material relevant to their particular enquiry.
Encouraging people to access and use the collections is a key part of an archivist’s role. Once the material has been catalogued, the archivist will shift focus to developing plans to engage a range of audiences that might include:
- Cultural historians looking to compare and contrast the experiences of two large cultural infrastructure projects
- Anybody who is simply curious to find-out more about an event from the programme – how it happened, who was involved
- Artists, writers and other creatives who may wish to use the creative outputs from a project to serve as a point of inspiration for new work
- Local historians researching the history of the area
- There will also be opportunities to use the archive to engage local schools and colleges in a variety of creative and fun ways.
Leeds2023 asked people to share an artwork in exchange for a ticket to the opening event ‘The Awakening’. A selection of the submissions was then curated and displayed across the city, demonstrating how new content can be created and then re-used in a creative manner.