Lift Living Archive

After ten festivals of performances, events, workshops and lectures, Lift has amassed a wealth of documents, photographs, prints, objects, audio and video recordings. This extraordinary range of material forms the heart of the Lift Living Archive project.

This unique learning resource will illuminate the development of contemporary international performance from 1981 to 2001. The archive will be a place for researching international theatre-making and its social and political context.

Stage 1 of the project, from November 2005 – May 2006, was a research and development phase funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Foundation for Sport and the Arts. Lift surveyed its archive materials, engaged potential archive users through market research and piloted innovative approaches to using the archive as a creative tool for learning.

Lift was then awarded further Heritage Lottery Fund funding to complete Stage 2 from June 2007 – March 2009.

The physical archive has been appraised and catalogued and a new partnership has been formed with Goldsmiths College. The College will host the archive from summer 2008.

A website, launching in September 2008, will feature a searchable selection of digitised archive material from each festival. A range of downloadable learning resources will launch in early 2009.

In the coming months a programme of Lift Living Archive workshops will be developed in consultation with archivists and educators, and will be piloted with schools, colleges and community groups.

If you have any questions or comments about the Lift Living Archive, please contact Nathan Firth, Participation Coordinator: nathanf@liftfest.org.uk.