Brighton Design Archive With Shelves Stretching Over 1km Gets £315k Award

The University of Brighton Design Archives is set to receive £315,000 from the Research England Museum, Galleries and Collections Fund.

Retaining their position among the country’s top archives to receive support, the Design Archives will receive £63,000 in each of the next five academic years.

The Design Archives holds the most significant body of material relating to post-war design organisations in any British university.

Amounting to over a kilometre of archives, the collection concentrates upon on design in Britain and on global design organisations in the twentieth century.

Much of the archive focusses on designers, public sector and private, who sought to create a better world in the aftermath of World War II.

The small curatorial team initiates and promotes collaborations with researchers across the arts and humanities and beyond, and works closely with the Centre for Design History.

According to leaders of the Design Archives, fund managers only grant awards to institutions that serve both their own and the wider research community — requirements that the Brighton University based archive met.

Archive contents regularly feature in public exhibitions, the most recent being at the Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, and at the London Transport Museum.

Sue Breakell, Archive Director, said:

"As well as the unique contribution we make to the University of Brighton community through research and teaching, the Design Archives works with educational, creative and cultural heritage partners, nationally and internationally.

"And sharing our collections with artists, designers, curators, journalists and writers, publishers, programme-makers and other cultural practitioners helps bring them to ever wider audiences.

"Archives help us see how the past shaped the world we live in today and our future direction.

"Our innovative research and our stewardship of the extraordinary collections in our care deepen understandings of design and its social contexts.

"We are delighted to receive this continuing endorsement from UKRI for our work."