IOU at 50: preparing a contemporary art collection for public access

This partnership project is a collaboration between IOU Theatre, the Centre for Cultural Ecologies in Art, Design and Architecture and an archivist, the aim of which is to help develop and curate a retrievable system for an historic collection of artefacts, props, print materials and other items housed at IOU Theatre in Dean Clough. This work is part of the development of the 50th Anniversary of IOU and will involve preparing materials for public access, exhibition and display. This phase involves close collaborative work with IOU and its founding Director David Wheeler, to identify iconic items in the collection and consider their function and purpose for telling the story of IOU as a creative arts organisation with a specific specialism in interdisciplinary working. An archivist with experience of working with art collections will be recruited to the project and work with the partner organisation and Dr Rowan Bailey to develop an appropriate system for cataloguing the collection. This will lead to the impactful curation of artefacts for public access and further research.