This toolkit exists as a set of prompts, questions and guidance to document and archive socially engaged art projects. Archiving is not simply about documenting; it is the process of contextualising and sharing material. The pace of the work ebbs and flows, but it is active and ongoing, and it is definitely work. It can be used by communities, artists and commissioners to create collaborative, co-produced archives of socially engaged art projects. The toolkit is a combination of practical advice, adaptable worksheets and prompts with more detailed resources for each stage of creating and sustaining an archive. 

To produce effective, participatory, equitable (and useful!) archives, this work should unfold alongside the socially engaged art project. Socially engaged art is immersive and collaborative; archiving should not detract from these experiences or be seen as an administrative burden, but rather as a tool to make the histories of these practices more equitable and participants more present. An archive cannot capture the direct action, feeling, or impact of a socially engaged art project, but it can document the shared experience and impact of those moments. It has the potential to be another tool of experimentation.

It relies on workshop sessions and documentation, skills that socially engaged artists are likely to possess. As the intention to archive should be built into proposals (and evaluations), the artist should lead on this work in the beginning. However, no one needs to have any archival experience to do this work; anyone can do it. Share the load; natural record keepers will present themselves and lean into people’s natural skills. Do what is possible: budgets, time, and resources are limited, and it has been organised to list practical advice by priority actions.

Although archives can be created retroactively, this toolkit aims for real-time, actionable archiving. It draws on time-based media art documentation, rapid response collecting, and other disciplinary toolkits. The focus is on what and how to collect, organise, catalogue, and share multi-layered narratives from socially engaged art projects.

This toolkit is part of an ongoing, evolving research process. It will be added to and revised on a continual basis. It exists for communities, artists, and commissioners to extract and adapt any and all useful information as needed.

Work through it from start to finish. Take what you need.