“Sustained Theatre Online Archive Toolkit was developed through  Arts Council England and Sustained Theatre partnership, working in collaboration with  Hybrid Consultants on the toolkits research, production and realisation online.”

The toolkit was produced to help to address the limited amount of archive material relating to Black Asian and Minority Ethnic performing arts.  Whilst some organisations, and a few individuals, do hold archives, there is a real lack of representation within performing arts archives.  What became apparent through the Sustained Theatre consultation nationally on archives was that individuals and companies who had really important archive material that is still not archived – and not available within the public arena.

Sustained Theatre’s first step was to document the archives which do exist and to produce a database, which is also available on this website.  The second step was to produce a toolkit which would help and hopefully inspire us all to begin to archive the incredible – but sadly too often undocumented – work that happens.

There are lots of different components to the toolkit.  We have tried to make it useful no matter what knowledge you have – whether you have a background in archives or taking the first steps.

Start at the Introduction, which explains how the toolkit is made up and move on from here.  There are case studies if you just want to start with a flavour of what you could do.  Alternatively, if you have considerable experience in relation to archives there’s plenty of additional reading that might provide you with the richness that you’re looking for.

We hope that you find the toolkit useful.  If you do have any questions, please let us know.  As with any toolkit it is a work in progress and it would be useful to let us have your feedback on how it can be improved.

Dr. Samina Zahir

Hybrid Consultants~Sustained Theatre Online Archive Toolkit