Open Session - From page to post: Archiving Creative Voices
Our last Open Session was specially curated by our current Future Creative Leaders and Phoenix Art Space as part of their Youth Takeover. The panel included experts Zoe Thompson (founder of Sweet Thang Zine) and archival artist, community and organisational poet Pauline Rutter. It was hosted and curated by two of our Future Creative Leaders, Fez Sibanda and Elsa Monteith.
The session started with Zoe and Pauline sharing a physical item that they’d brought with them that meant something special to them.
The question of what an archive is led to asking who’s lives and experiences are in most of our national and private archives. Usually, these are the lives and voices of white middle-class men and people with money. So where does that leave anyone who falls outside of these groups? Who gets to be remembered—and who decides?
Leaving a trace, or a legacy for Pauline is important. Archiving “keeps a record of what it's like to be alive now. If there is nothing to look back to, it's gonna be very hard to move forward.” Pauline
This led to an interesting discussion about physical archives versus online and digital archives and the need for us all to archive physically, through photo albums, making zines or journaling for example.
“Physical archiving in IRL and not just URL.” as Elsa put it. Relying only online can be risky because online systems are not forever. If your favourite social media is closed forever, what happens to your account and who owns your online archive?
However, that doesn’t mean that online archiving is all bad, it has its benefits. “I use social media like a sketchbook. This is a thing that I want to remember or is building on what I'm thinking” Pauline.
For Zoe, online archives are useful tools to document a specific time: “Intentional archiving people can do is for example, writing a blog. It isn't readable for the public but it does exist. It's an archive of my teenhood. My relationship to archiving is through that lived experience and personal storytelling.” Zoe
Throughout the evening, some of the ideas and questions that were explored were:
What it means to leave a creative legacy
How to archive your work intentionally
Who gets to be remembered—and who decides?
The importance of grassroots movements in documenting underground and underrepresented cultures
Thinking about social media as a lasting digital archive
The event was part of a Youth Takeover at Phoenix Art Space, in collaboration with Lighthouse. It was hosted and curated by Fez Sibanda and Elsa Monteith, two members of our current Future Creative Leaders cohort. Lighthouse Young Creatives alumni Maia played a DJ set to soundtrack the evening.
The Youth Takeover programme was specifically for young people aged 13-25 years old.
About the Panelists
Zoe Thompson (she/her) is a zine-maker, editor and workshop facilitator based in London. She is the founder of sweet-thang zine, a community and indie press publishing work by Black creatives worldwide. She is passionate about bringing projects to life in print and championing underrepresented voices through storytelling and curation. Her workshops are centred around manifesto building and play, using both of these to create memorable experiences that inspire you to find your voice and connect with others.
www.sweetthangzine.com | @sweetthangzine
Pauline Rutter (she/her) is an archival artist, and community & organisational poet. Her background in fine art, sustainability, research, education, and community activism show up in her cultural work and academic and creative writing. Work has been published online by The Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality, Democratic Society, The Culture Capital Exchange, ‘We Hear You Now,’ The National Centre for Academic and Culture Exchange and Writing Our Legacy magazine. Pauline’s practice continues to evolve through speculative archival poetics and restorative Black feminist historiography.
linktr.ee/paulinerutter | @pauline.rutter
About the Hosts
Elsa Monteith (she/her) is a writer and broadcaster working in music, the arts, and with impact-driven organisations. She has a newsletter called Discontented which explores "content" as both a feeling, and a symptom of the algorithm, and has an archive of published writing and radio spanning music, arts, and culture journalism. Elsa is also a Lighthouse Future Creative Leader and participated in Lighthouse Young Creatives as a mentee in 2019.
Fez Sibanda (she/her) is a Doctoral researcher at the University of Sussex with a passion for exploring how marginalised groups experience education. Her research dives into topics like race, coloniality, and higher education. When she’s not researching, she’s busy being a Lighthouse Future Creative Leader, where she’s hosted events and led panel discussions that spark important conversations. Fez is all about challenging systems, amplifying underrepresented voices, and creating spaces for powerful dialogue.
ABOUT PHOENIX ART SPACE
Phoenix Art Space hosted a Youth Takeover called ‘Your Space to Make’ from Saturday 23 November to Sunday 1 December 2024.
Young people took over the Main Gallery and transformed the gallery space and windows with their own artwork. The space was also activated by creative activities, workshops and events.
Phoenix Art Space is a unique arts organisation, located in the centre of Brighton, and was established as a charity in 1995. A thriving and dynamic space, providing a range of creative opportunities, including affordable artists’ studios, two public galleries and free exhibitions. They put on a range of regular community events which are open to everyone. These include: talks and presentations from artists & arts organisations family fun days short courses, one-day events & drop-in workshops.
ABOUT OUR FUTURE CREATIVE LEADERS & OUR FUNDERS
Future Creative Leaders (FCL) is a 12-month paid programme offering young creatives from underrepresented backgrounds the opportunity to work closely with Lighthouse's leadership team to explore various aspects of creative leadership. Funded and supported by Art Fund’s ‘Reimagine Grants’ and Chalk Cliff Trust, over the year, participants will co-curate programmes, select participants for mini-residencies, and recruit their successors, all while exploring alternative governance structures, accountability, and power-sharing.
