Activating archives and collections for local and societal impact event
Free event: 11 March, 12:30-2:30pm, John Rylands Library.
Join Creative Manchester, a University of Manchester research platform on , 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.
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.