What makes an archive and who decides?     

Traditionally stories of culture and society have been held and told by institutional collections. But what about the everyday material which is hidden, forgotten or displaced outside of these traditional records? Who tells these stories and decides who they belong to, how they are looked after and what their value is? Who are they for?

Whose Archive is it Anyway? is the first in a three-part series of events exploring the future of archives and archiving. This one-day event on Friday 16 April 2027 will kickstart the conversation with talks addressing:

• what it means to make an archive today 
• who decides what an archive consists of 
• who creates an archive 
• who an archive is for
• who has access 

This event is for anyone interested in or already involved in creating, holding, exploring, and taking care of archives, especially those not working in more traditional institutions or archives.

This open call for speakers is now live. We welcome submissions of real-life experiences, rather than academic papers, which challenge or answer these or other points related to the future of archives. 

The deadline for submission is 1 November 2026 and selected speakers will be notified by 18 January 2027

Speakers could cover a range of ideas related to archives, including: 

• Artist/ photographers’ legacies 
• Institutional archives
• Memory  – forgotten or lost histories being made visible again 
• ‘Truth’ within archives – who's telling the stories and how?
• Ownership - who has the authority to tell stories? Who owns the images and their stories?
• Relationships – from those who create archives to those who use them 
• Radical, non-traditional archives that look to redesign how stories are gathered and held to safeguard living memories
• Family archives 
• Reclaimed photographic archives
• Counter archives – those that question dominant historical narratives
• Grass Roots archives
• Technologies to reduce barriers to archives while safeguarding material
• Digital preservation/ digitisation 
• Dialogic archives

This call for contributors is open to all* especially those with experience of working with archives and the stories within them. 

Selected speakers will receive a fee of £200.

Any questions please email archive@tpg.org.uk

*You must be 18 years or older and be available to attend The Photographers' Gallery on 16 April 2027 to speak at this event.