Our ambition is for the archive to become a unique record of art made by and in collaboration with artists and people who have severe intellectual disability and their support services, families, siblings and carers. It will encompass records of all our work and projects over the past 12 years including film, photography and artworks in all media as well as written documentation and reports and evaluations of projects. It would offer a unique and rich potential seam for a wide range of national and international research initiatives and partnerships. Our archival material is as yet ‘un-mined’ but holds huge potential for analysis and discovery. It also contains numerous and unique curatorial themes for future publications, exhibitions films and other productions.

Over the next 3 years we will create and comprehensively organize the archive so that it can be accessed and used to its best potential both by us and other people researching detailed observations of people of all ages who have complex needs as they engage with media and make art. These records reveal gestures, sounds, visual focus and ways of working that are highly specific to each individual – for example a young woman who paints intensely complex works at all scales ‘orchestrating’ and organising multiple images and narratives with a decisiveness that is astounding when considered within the greater complexities of her life abilities and vulnerability in the world.

The archive will enable and facilitate a greater ease of reference for pursuing ideas and themes for presentations about our work and its theoretical underpinning. We will disseminate information about the archive widely when it is complete and accessible and encourage its dissemination through multiple partnerships, exhibitions, projects, productions and research initiatives.