Join us for an informal research café exploring the ways in which archives and collections can generate social value.
Libraries, galleries, and museums hold archives and collections that, beyond their historical and cultural significance, possess considerable but often under-realised potential to generate social benefits. These benefits can be seen at different levels – from supporting individual confidence and wellbeing, to strengthening local place-attachment and community cohesion, and to wider outcomes such as civic participation and regional development. Cultural institutions linked to universities are particularly well placed to connect academic research with wider public audiences, helping collaborative and participatory work with archives and collections to reach beyond the academy.
Realising this potential depends upon ‘activating’ these collections through robust, ethical, and sustained community partnerships. This means going beyond simply providing access, and instead developing shared approaches that connect institutional collections with community-led activity. Treating institutional expertise and community knowledge with equal standing helps to ensure that engagement is meaningful and grounded in equity and mutual benefit. This focus on the quality of collaboration can support both academics and cultural institutions in embedding community engagement as a core part of their public and social role, while remaining attentive to the challenges this work can involve.
This Research Café will explore, through lightning talks and panel discussion, the different ways in which institutional and community-led archives and collections can be used to support local and wider social benefits. By showcasing examples from the University of Manchester and beyond, it will offer a space to share experience, discuss approaches, and reflect on how the value of this collaborative cultural work can be conceptualized, evidenced, and amplified.
Agenda:
12-12.30pm: Lunch/networking
12.30-12.40pm: Welcome / introduction (Chair: Constance Smith)
12.40-13.25: Four short lightning talks (10 minutes each)
13.25-13.55: Panel discussion (Moderator: Tom Flavel)
13.55-14.25: Audience Q&A
14.25-14.30: Closing words/next steps
Panellists
Sarah Aitchison, UCL, Prejudice in Power project
Phillipa Heath, Museum of English Rural Life, Museum of Sanctuary project
Maya Sharma, AIU Race Centre and Education Trust
Lucy Turner, The Whitworth Art Gallery, Still Care Project
