Photo of young people from Avenue Youth Project as part of Living Legacies pilot workshop in Stuart Hall Library on 15 May 2025
Living Legacies Project Manager Tavian Hunter reflects on the pilot programme connecting and engaging iniva’s archive in creative ways as part of our National Lottery Heritage Fund project.
Over spring 2025, iniva launched a series of pilot events as part of Living Legacies: Collaboration, Community and Radicality, an initiative supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. The pilot programme set out to test ideas, build relationships and experiment with creative ways of making iniva’s archive, particularly our Exhibition Collections and the Organisation for Visual Arts (OVA) Collection, more visible and relevant to today’s communities.
The result? A powerful range of intergenerational, artist-led activities that brought people together through shared memory, creativity and cultural heritage. These pilots confirmed that archives don’t belong behind glass but to communities.
Exploring Archives Through Art and Memory
At the heart of the pilot programme was the belief that archives can be more than static collections, but ‘a living archive’ as Stuart Hall states, that exudes sources of creative inspiration and collective reflection. In May, iniva welcomed young people from The Avenues Youth Project to Stuart Hall Library for a hands-on workshop led by Cassia Clarke and Tavian Hunter. Participants were invited to explore the OVA archive, create collages and take polaroids that reflected their identities, before learning how to preserve their photographs using starter archiving kits. The session sparked interest in continuing the Avenues’ own youth heritage project, with participants planning to film and document their experiences at iniva for social media.
Older adults from Open Age with artist Bhajan Hunjan as part of Living Legacies pilot workshop
Similarly, older adults from Open Age Pimlico and Queens Park Community Champions joined artist Bhajan Hunjan for zine-making workshops that explored the themes of home and belonging. With many participants aged 70 and above, these sessions became vibrant spaces for storytelling, artmaking and reflection. One participant described the sessions as “a creative lifeline,” while another expressed joy at learning a new skill and connecting it to their cultural history. The workshops laid the groundwork for deeper collaboration with these community centres and inspired future site visits to Stuart Hall Library.
Creativity, Care and Belonging
The pilot phase also trialled emotional wellbeing activities using iniva’s Emotional Learning Cards resources, developed with art therapists and artists. On 26 March, A-Space therapist Nathalie Roset facilitated a therapeutic art session with the Abbey Centre’s “Young at Hearts” group, consisting of adults with complex mental and physical needs, including dementia. Centred around the idea of Gardens of Belonging, the session used art to encourage gentle storytelling, sensory exploration and personal reflection.
Artmaking session with Young at Hearts Group at the Abbey Centre during the Living Legacies pilot project.
For many, these sessions showed the value of using archives and creative practices to support emotional care. They also highlighted the potential for arts-based models of engagement with those who are often excluded from traditional cultural spaces.
Artists as Bridges Between Past and Future
One of the most exciting aspects of the pilot programme was the reactivation of relationships with artists connected to iniva and OVA. Photographers and cultural pioneers like Joy Gregory, Sunil Gupta and Roshini Kempadoo contributed reflections through an informal forum, sharing their hopes for the archive and expressing interest in being interviewed as part of an oral history series.
Artist Shepherd Manyika with older adults from ETAT as part of a Living Legacies pilot workshop
These dialogues reinforced the role artists play in reinterpreting the past, building new connections, and mentoring the next generation. For example, artist and educator Shepherd Manyika returned to lead a pilot workshop with ETAT (Encouragement through the Arts and Talking), using sound and drawing to inspire participants to revisit a previous project and layer new meaning onto past experiences.
Building the Foundations for Future Collaboration
The pilot programme also enabled iniva to begin forming partnerships with over a dozen community and youth organisations across Westminster, Lambeth and Southwark. From youth-led collectives like Roadworks Media and PEM People to grassroots organisations like the Abbey Centre and Open Age, each partnership affirmed the demand for culturally relevant, artist-led programming grounded in care, collaboration and legacy.
Queens Park Community Centre workshop as part of the Living Legacies pilot programme
What we heard time and again was the need for continuity. These communities are not interested in one-off sessions; they want sustainable, long-term relationships where creativity can thrive, voices are heard, and legacies are built collectively. This was echoed by partners like Shadow to Shine, who emphasised the importance of co-creation, access and trust-building.
What’s Next?
The Living Legacies pilot programme proved that iniva’s archive is not only relevant. It’s urgent! It offers a unique resource for community learning, intergenerational dialogue and creative care. Over the next four years, we hope to build on these early successes, co-developing public programming, artist residencies and exhibitions that activate the archive in meaningful ways.
Thank you to all the artists, community members, youth workers, educators and volunteers who took part in our pilot journey with us and our consultants. You are shaping the future of the archive—one zine, collage, photo and conversation at a time.
Stay tuned for more events and opportunities to get involved at www.iniva.org.