Reassembling the prisons memory archive: a bricolage practice-led approach to archival education through collaborative curation

Although various forms of collaboration, and participatory projects focussing on digital archival collections, have emerged, there is a notable lack of qualitative research accompanying these activities. Moreover, these and other developments have contributed to the blurring of boundaries between archives and museums (Hvenegaard Rasmussen, Rydbeck and Larsen, 2023).

This shift forms the foundational premise of the current research project, which applies museum education theory—specifically Nina Simon’s model of participation (2010)—to conceptualize a parallel field of creative archival education. Focusing on the Prisons Memory Archive and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, this study explores how collaborative curatorial practices can be used to engage audiences with archival materials.<br><br>The project adopts a practice-based research methodology, informed by Lévi-Strauss’ concept of bricolage (2021), that focuses on the planning, implementation, and evaluation of a series of outreach events aimed at collaborative curatorial practice.