Front of iniva. Photo courtesy of OrsiniBrewin, 2019.
iniva (The Institute of International Visual Arts) is delighted to announce the launch of Living Legacies: Collaboration, Community and Radicality, a major four-year project supported by a substantial grant of £1,675,222 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. The initiative will help transform public access to and engagement with iniva’s archive, establishing it as a “living” resource that empowers communities to share knowledge, creativity and lived experience. It will culminate in three major exhibitions, developed with and showcasing the archives alongside leading iniva-associated artists, and presented in partnership with institutions, including Arts Council Collection, UAL: Chelsea College of Arts and Southwark Park Galleries.
Housed in the Stuart Hall Library in London, iniva’s archive is an unparalleled resource that documents the organisation’s history as a radical change-maker, tracing its roots back to the wake of the British Black Arts Movement. It chronicles over 30 years of iniva’s work in decolonising art history, placing Global Majority artists at the forefront through its exhibitions, publications, and events. The archive notably includes records from some of Britain’s most celebrated contemporary artists—such as Dame Sonia Boyce, Matthew Krishanu and Rosa-Johan Uddoh—in addition to documentation of pivotal exhibitions, including Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance (1997), Cities on the Move (1999), Veil (2003-4), and Alien Nation (2006).
Currently, iniva’s archive primarily serves as a specialised resource for artists, curators, and researchers. Over the next four years, Living Legacies will broaden this scope, reaching wider communities in Westminster, Lambeth, Southwark, and beyond. This expansion will be driven by initiatives designed to “activate” the archive—ranging from co-created exhibitions and events to podcasts, oral history interviews with artists, and digital resources. The goal is to transform the archive into a social and creative space where participants can foster their sense of identity, belonging, and cultural memory, while shaping iniva’s archival histories for the future. A cornerstone of the project will be the exhibition programme, scheduled to unfold between 2027 and 2030.
©Photograph by Jemima Yong
Living Legacies will adopt a co-creation model, embedding artists and cultural practitioners directly within local communities, to deliver a creative heritage programme of artist-led community workshops using iniva’s archival collections. This approach is designed to cultivate intergenerational collaborations, bridging together young people and older adults with artists, educators, and grassroots organisations in these boroughs. This will culminate into a wider public programme of exhibitions with events, heritage and creative workshops, a mobile archive handling collection, a podcast series and oral history interviews. It will also inspire local communities to create new displays in local community hubs, highlighting the lived experience of Black and Global Majority art heritage.
Sepake Angiama, Artistic Director of iniva, said:
“Living Legacies transforms iniva’s archive into a vibrant space where Global Majority histories are actively brought to life across generations and within our communities. The programme champions collaboration, care, and radical imagination to ensure these narratives—which are often marginalised, erased, or overlooked—are not just preserved, but become a site of possibility where people can find their own stories and experiences reflected.
We are deeply grateful to National Lottery players for this significant grant, which gives us the confidence to pursue the necessary additional fundraising for this vital project. To fully achieve the project’s ambition, we are actively engaging supporters and partners to help us unlock an additional £200,000 in match funding, complementing the substantial investment committed by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.”
Creative Mapping: Design and Architecture Lab ©Photograph by Jemima Yong
Stuart McLeod, Director of England, London & South, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said:
“Thanks to National Lottery players, we’re proud to support iniva’s Living Legacies project, which will open up an important and historically significant archive to more people. This project will help ensure that the stories, creativity and cultural heritage of Black and Global Majority artists are not only preserved but actively shared, explored and reimagined with the communities they speak to. Living Legacies will create new opportunities for learning, participation and connection across generations and we’re delighted to support a project that places community collaboration and representation at its heart.”
Overview of Living Legacies
A Vibrant Community‑Led Approach
Living Legacies adopts a co-creation model, embedding artists and cultural practitioners directly within local communities across Westminster, Southwark, and Lambeth. This approach is designed to cultivate intergenerational collaborations, uniting young people and older adults with artists, educators, and grassroots organisations in these boroughs.
The Gathering © Photograph by Francis Augusto
The project will establish two new community panels to shape the public programme and other creative content: The Community Champions Panel, composed of local stakeholders, community leaders, and representatives from partner organisations; and the Co-Creation Youth Panel, composed of young people aged 16–25.
Expanding Access to a Nationally Significant Archive
Living Legacies places heritage at the heart of iniva’s future, ensuring that marginalised histories are preserved, shared and continually reinterpreted. Through the cataloguing and preservation of three key archive collections: The Organisation of Visual Arts (OVA) Collection (1992-2005), iniva’s Exhibition Collections (1994-2024) and the Global Ephemera Collection (ca. 1980-2008), will be made publicly accessible for the first time at Stuart Hall Library. These collections document exhibitions capturing critical contributions to British visual culture, including curatorial papers, artists’ correspondence and unpublished writing.
This work will significantly improve the discoverability of the archive, safeguarding the archives of Black and Global Majority artists, ensuring these vital, underrepresented histories are accessible for research, education, and public engagement. In addition, we will create new content to enrich the archive, such as a series of oral history interviews, developing a themed handling collection and improved digital access through our online database and newly developed website.
Shifting the Centre ©Photograohy by Jemima Yong
Supporting the Next Generation of Heritage Workers
Embedded learning and professional development are core to the project’s DNA. Living Legacies aims to diversify the heritage workforce to improve access to the archive, increase community engagement, and grow knowledge and skills across the heritage sector with a suite of paid roles, placements, volunteer pathways and a brand new archive apprenticeship aimed at underrepresented individuals, especially Global Majority young people and older adults in Westminster, Lambeth and Southwark.
A Major Programme of Exhibitions
Living Legacies will culminate in three exhibitions (Please note that the exhibition titles are currently provisional).
- The Bigger Picture (2027/28): An exhibition at iniva’s Stuart Hall Library, curated by photographer and activist Sunil Gupta (co-founder of OVA and Autograph ABP). Focusing on race, migration, and queer identity, the exhibition will take stock of early shows Gupta intuitively curated, including the first UK presentation of Stan Douglas, and collaborations with artists like Roshini Kempadoo and Joy Gregory, drawing from iniva’s OVA archive and Gupta’s personal collection.
- In Their Own Image: Black Women and Non-Binary Image Making, 1980s to the Present (2028/29): an exhibition presented at iniva’s Stuart Hall Library and UAL’s Chelsea Space, addressing the historical marginalisation of Black women and non-binary artists through newly commissioned oral histories. The exhibition will feature key artists represented in iniva’s archive, including Dame Sonia Boyce, Maud Sulter, Zarina Bhimji and Jananne Al-Ani, and will be accompanied by listening posts and a new podcast series.
- Migration is a One-Way Trip: Stuart Hall’s Influence on Visual Culture (2029/30): a national touring exhibition in partnership with Arts Council Collection and Southwark Park Galleries, examining the enduring legacy of Stuart Hall (1932–2014)—pioneering cultural theorist, iniva’s founding Chair, and key architect of Britain’s postcolonial identity and cultural politics. It will feature works by established and emerging Black British artists influenced by Hall’s thought, presented alongside rare archival materials, oral histories, and critical texts tracing Hall’s influence and contribution to British cultural heritage.
The Gathering © Photograph by Francis Augusto
A Future Built on Collaboration
iniva’s partners are essential for the project’s success, contributing funding and a range of activities, including exhibition delivery and touring, learning programmes, research, new commissions, and ensuring a long-term legacy.
We look forward to delivering Living Legacies with all our current partners: Young at Hearts (The Abbey Centre), Encouragement Through Arts and Talking (ETAT), Queens Park Community Council (Paddington Development Trust), Open Age, Avenues Youth Project, Roadworks Media, Shadow to Shine, Photofusion, A Space, Goldsmiths, University of London, Westminster Libraries and Archives, National Society for Education in Art and Design (NSEAD), University College London, Serendipity: Institute of Black Arts and Heritage, and Westminster Adult Education Service.
We are looking for additional venue partners and co-commissioners who would be interested in having these exhibitions in their venues nationally and internationally.
Please get in touch with Sepake Angiama, iniva’s Artistic Director, if you would be interested in being a partner venue through info@iniva.org.
Become a Living Legacies Supporter
Living Legacies builds on extensive community research and successful pilot activity delivered in early 2025. Now, with this major investment, iniva is ready to realise an ambitious vision: to create an archive that is not only preserved, but actively lived, shared, and re‑interpreted.
iniva welcomes partners, donors, and community participants who share the belief that heritage should empower, connect, and inspire. If you share our values and would like to help support this transformative project, please contact Susannah Gorgeous, iniva’s Finance and Operations Director: suannah@iniva.org.
