workshops

	Workshop 2: Bristol Curatorial Practices - From Live Art to the Archive This workshop brought together archivists and curators to discuss the relationship between curating, and artistic programming, and the practice of archival work. The workshop consisted of four curated interventions, each of which was generated in response to a series of questions. Jo Elsworth and Helen Cole, addressed the relationship of objects, memories, stories and the contexts of curation and preservation. Heike Roms talked about methodologies of working with live material archivally, about the ways in which curated events that focus on the retelling of significant moments of performance history can allow for multiple views, multiple stories and offer space in which contested histories can come into productive play. Paul Clarke spoke about contemporary archive as a practiced space, about curating the uses of oral history, and about generating collaborative archival projects that might offer a variety of ways for future users to engage with them, responding to them and interacting with them. General discussion focused on ways in which curating and archiving imagine, or produce a field, as well as how they relate to the past and the future of that field; the responsibilities of curators towards the future, what is kept, how and under what conditions; how a field is systematised through the categories that archival work uses to retrieve and preserve the evidential remains of performance, and ways in which different registers of evidence – oral and witness accounts, objects and documents – may speak to one another. Speakers discussed what it means to curate the accounts of audiences, and other participants – from technicians to support staff - within the context of an event. The workshop was curated by Sara Jane Bailes, and took place at the University of Bristol with additional support from BIRTHA and the Institute for Advanced Studies.

	Participants: Bex Carrington, Paul Clarke, Helen Cole, Jo Elsworth, Simon Jones, Nikki Millican, Barry Parsons, Heike Roms, Barry Smith, Clare Thornton, Steering Group