‘Artists Open Up The Archive’ at National Co-operative Archive, Manchester

July 19th 2016

This is an opportunity for NSU Circle 7 participants based in the UK to meet up for an informal day of discussion, practice/performance and activation of the archive. This satellite Circle 7 seminar would be a continuation of the themes of Practicing Communities: Transformative societal strategies of artistic research and there are spaces for 10 participants to work individually or collaboratively.

The National Co-operative Archive

The National Co-operative Archive holds material record of the co-operative movement and as such is a ‘people’s history’ of locally based, voluntarist, participatory and democratic societies, retail outlets, places of entertainment and more. The Co-operatives have offered a complete social life, founded on mutuality and collectivity rather than individualism by providing an alternative model for over 150 years. This Archive seminar offers researchers the opportunity to explore the archive and engage with the archival materials from their own unique and dynamic research interests and perspectives.

The process

1. Let Jo and I know if you would like to attend. Please email us BOTH at lucylyons68@yahoo.co.uk and jodarnley@hotmail.com

Please let us know by Monday June 6^th – it’s first come first served.

2. Once you have signed up we will put you in touch with the archivists to work with you to develop ideas and questions in an email conversation.They will discuss your particular research interests and help.

The seminar day to include:

Morning Session: 10:00 am – 1:00 pm

Introduction to the Archive and handling.

Participants engage with archive materials related to their research interests pre-requested and discussed with archivists.

Visits down into the archives in small groups.

Identify items for digitisation to be used in book making workshop.

Lunch: buffet lunch at the National Co-operative Archive

Afternoon Session: 2:00 – 5:00 pm

Book making workshop as a collective experience aggregating the myriad of research interests.

Reflective discussion about the seminar.

Participant responses to the Archive and archival materials to be gathered during the day and made into a book separately, as a creative/reflective documentation of the seminar.

The day is free with tea/coffee and lunch included. We will negotiate amongst our Circle 7 friends if anyone needs a sofa to sleep on!
National Co-operative archive

The co-operative movement resonates with the ethos of NSU and Circle 7. In Britain, it began in response to the extreme poverty suffered by many in England in 18th and 19th centuries, but also due to the rapid social changes of urbanisation, the rising food prices which resulted from the marketization of the economy and its effects on the working class and women during this period.