Active Archives (Henry Moore Institute: Essays on Sculpture No. 73)

Artists have made use of sculptors' archives in many ways - as a means to build a legacy, to return to remembered exhibitions, or to chart the development of experimental ideas.

Importantly, archive material is not artwork; rather it is all that surrounds the production and dissemination of sculpture. An archive of sculptors' papers is full of matter that is no longer of use to the artist: our collections range from letters and diaries to tools, photos, sketchbooks and press coverage - and as the cover image of this volume demonstrates, sculptors' 'papers' are not solely printed matter.

Our Archive, part of the Leeds Museums and Galleries Sculpture Collection, is an important part of our day to day activities. While this material may no longer be of use to the artist, it is infinitely more valuable to historians, curators and artists interested in developing the study of sculpture. In the hands of these researchers, these cast offs can come to shape the future of sculptural thinking.

Active Archives contains the following essays, as well as an introduction by Lisa Le Feuvre (Head of Sculpture Studies, the Henry Moore Institute):

Archival Interventions in Sculpture
Rowan Bailey (Postgraduate Taught Programme Leader and Senior Lecturer in Historical and Theoretical Studies at the University of Huddersfield)

The Frank Martin Archive: Revisiting New Generation sculpture
Elena Crippa (Curator, Modern and Contemporary British Art at Tate Britain)

Modelling Lines of Sculptural Thought: The Use of a Transcription project to Interrogate, Intervene and Dialogue with a Sculpture Archive
Sheila Gaffney (Sculptor and Head of Fine Art at Leeds College of Art)

The Sculptor as Archivist: Interpreting Barbara Hepworth's Legacy
Helena Bonnet (Curator, writer and lecturer undertaking an AHRC-funded collaborative doctorate on the Sculptural Legacy of Barbara Hepworth with Tate and the Royal College of Art, London)

Archive Assembly
John Plowman (Artist)