Activating an Archive

Archives are any accumulation of papers, letters, photographs, or artifacts that have social or historical value, including family photo albums or personal records. These gain new meanings with new interpretations or shifted contexts. ALICE PROUJANSKY’s book Hard Times are Fighting Times uses archival research and documentary photography to examine the legacy of radical activism in her family. In this workshop, participants will reinvigorate their artistic practices while developing new approaches to working with archives in their classrooms. Participants will be asked to bring selections from an archive (personal, municipal, political, etc.) to examine and rework through conversation and hands-on techniques.