As part of Beam’s Arts Council Grants for the Arts supported programme ‘Arts in Place – Legacy, New Practice & Partnerships’ we conducted an initial scoping of the archive material we hold and extracting a number of key projects to explore.

Kerry Harker was appointed to undertake this creative research process, scoping the potential of the archive. Kerry is a Leeds-based independent Curator and PhD researcher (on artist-led initiatives) in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds. She was co-founder of Project Space Leeds (2006-) and The Tetley (2013-), a centre for contemporary art and learning in south central Leeds, where she was also the inaugural Artistic Director until September 2015.

We worked with Kerry to revisit key Beam projects and to scope the archive’s potential as an advocacy and learning resource for the arts in placemaking. You can download a summary of work to date here – Beam Archive Project We will build on this initial scoping with the aim to uncover and share the archive with the wider arts and cultural sector and the general public.

If you have worked with Beam as a client, artist, community or participant over our 30 year history we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us contact@beam.uk.net / 07718 564 376.

Image: ‘People Making Places’ by David Mach RA: ‘People Making Places’ was an education and learning programme delivered by Beam and supported by Commission for Architecture & the Built Environment, Arts Council England, Wakefield Council, and others. This significant programme ran from 2002-10 and aimed to give members of the public the knowledge, confidence and understanding to become involved with the future shaping of their towns and cities.