About Unseen Brighton

Students paint mural at Brighton Aquarium, 1959 — Brighton College of Art students painting a mural on the south wall of Brighton Aquarium (now Sea Life). From – ‘Art goes to the wall…’ The Argus, 24 April 1959. Reproduced with kind permission of the Brighton School of Art Archive, University of Brighton Design Archives.

Recovering the hidden multicultural history of the University of Brighton and its forerunner institutions

This collaborative archival project aims to recover the hidden presence and experience of Black and Asian people, as well as other racialised ethnic minorities – both staff and students – at the University of Brighton and its forerunner institutions including the Brighton School of Art and the Chelsea College of Physical Education (in Eastbourne). It was launched in 2022 to mark the 30^th anniversary of the University of Brighton and is supported by the Centre for Memory, Narrative and Histories and the School of Humanities and Social Science at the University.

Unseen Brighton is a developing project. The initial project team (in alphabetical order) included Cathy Bergin, Thomas Carter, Marina Castledine, Max Cooper, Christian Høgsbjerg, Anthony Kalume, Deborah Madden, Mike Okorie, Ken Olende, Veneta Roberts, Anita Rupprecht and Isabella Tranter-Richards. We would also like to acknowledge the assistance of the many archivists and others who have helped facilitate this research including Sarah Smith and Lesley Whitworth and other archivists in the Brighton School of Art Archive, University of Brighton Design Archives.

Please contact us either individually or on unseen@brighton.ac.uk if you have further questions or for more information on the project and how you can get involved.