In 2008, LIFT invited educational and community groups to investigate the archive with us to help develop new understandings about the pleasures, possibilities and challenges of developing public participation and learning projects with archives generally and the LIFT archive specifically. We were keen to know what this participation would reveal about LIFT, about the archive and about creative engagement. Therefore, the findings articulated in this report written by Dr Caoimhe McAvinchey, are the result of a process of collaborative enquiry, dialogue and reflection between all of the participants.

 

Throughout this collaborative research project we asked:

+ How can the LIFT Living Archive be made accessible to educational and community groups?

+ What approaches support groups’ exploration of it?

+ What kinds of support, preparation and mediation of materials need to be considered when inviting people to enter the archive?

+ How much context do groups need about LIFT?

+ What does learning through the LIFT Living Archive look like?

You can read the full report here

"In 1980 back when LIFT started, Nelson Mandela was in prison, Pinochet in power in Chile and the Berlin Wall stood firm. International artists at LIFT have demonstrated how their theatre can suggest other worlds, making possible with poetry what politics often has yet to achieve. With this in mind, we acknowledge the importance not only of encouraging artists […] to experiment, but also the imperative to track and disseminate evidence of their experimentation. Thus a new initiative at LIFT gets underway: the LIFT Living Archive. Maintaining a dynamic connection between past, present and future, the project in its early stages combines the organisation of LIFT’s physical archive […] with Learning programmes for artists and participants - young and old alike - to explore LIFT’s archive as a catalyst for future creative work. "

Rose Fenton and Lucy Neal (LIFT News, Spring 2005), their last newsletter as Directors of the LIFT Festival

 

Dr Caoimhe McAvinchey was the convenor of the MA Applied Drama at Goldsmiths whilst this research project was undertaken. She is now a lecturer in Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London.

c.mcavinchey@qmul.ac.uk