On Friday 9 February, Archivist Sue Breakell gives the invited keynote address at a symposium organised by the AHRC-funded project ‘Life on the Outskirts’, at Manchester Metropolitan University.  The project explores the multiple challenges and opportunities faced by small creative archive collections and those working with them, using the archive of the fashion designer and artist Helen Storey as case study and inspiration. Breakell’s paper will consider modes of subjectivity through which individuals engage with archives, as academics, artists, students or heritage professionals, in both analogue and digital environments.

Sue is also speaking at an important international conference at the Universita Iuav in Venice on Thursday 22 February, looking at Graphic Design as cultural object in the digital age.  Addressing the conference’s theme, which is the opportunities and challenges of the digital, Sue’s paper will discuss the AHRC-funded project ‘Exploring British Design’ (2014-15), a collaboration between the Design Archives and the Archives Hub, a proof-of-concept project to connect and amplify access points to data about Britain’s rich design history held in a selection of museums and archives.