Who decides what a place keeps, and what happens to everything that doesn't make the cut?
September was spent a long way from the office. Ten days in Makassar for the first residency of Archives of Change, then nine in Taiwan, building on connections we started three years ago. Two places with very little in common - different states, different economies, different centuries of interference - and the same question waiting in both. Who decides what a place keeps, and what happens to everything that doesn't make the cut?
Archives of Change
In September, we spent two weeks in Makassar, Indonesia, for the first phase of Archives of Change, a collaboration with Musyawarah Arsip (MUAR) and Revoluton Arts in Luton, supported by the British Council’s Connections Through Culture programme.
The residency brought together two artists from Luton and three Indonesian collectives to explore how communities collect, preserve and share their histories, particularly those that might otherwise be overlooked, forgotten or excluded from official records.
We deliberately made space for the exchange to develop at its own pace. Much of our time was spent in conversation, visiting people and places, sharing meals and getting to know the city. Some of the most valuable exchanges happened informally, in people’s homes and over long cups of coffee.
Along the way, we encountered some extraordinary archives, from personal documents rescued from house clearances to ancient cave paintings and the manuscripts of the Bugis epic La Galigo, much of which is held in the Netherlands. These encounters prompted important questions about who decides what is worth preserving, who controls access to cultural histories and how communities can take greater ownership of their own stories.
The residency reinforced the importance of community-led approaches to archiving, but also challenged some of our assumptions about what an archive can be. Just as importantly, it demonstrated the value of building international relationships through shared enquiry rather than arriving with a predetermined set of outcomes.
The next phase brings Indonesian artists to Luton, where we will continue exploring these questions in a different social and cultural context. The ambition is to build something that extends beyond a single exchange, developing lasting relationships and new approaches to how communities record, interpret and share their histories.
From Indonesia to Taiwan
Following our time in Indonesia, we spent nine days in Taiwan meeting artists, curators and cultural organisations, exploring different approaches to cultural production and where future collaborations might develop.
One of the most memorable visits was to Houtong, a former coal-mining town just outside Taipei. Two museums, only a short walk apart, tell the town’s industrial history in very different ways. One is a beautifully restored former coal preparation plant, supported by the city government. The other was established by four retired miners using their own pensions, determined to preserve the experiences and stories of those who worked underground.
The parallels with County Durham, and our work with Ensemble ’84 in Horden, were striking. Questions of industrial heritage, community ownership and who gets to tell the story of a place are just as relevant in Taiwan as they are in the North East of England. What was particularly interesting was how these two approaches coexist, offering visitors very different but equally valuable perspectives on the same history.
Elsewhere, conversations with independent artists and organisations returned repeatedly to questions of funding and independence. Some of Taiwan’s newer artist collectives have deliberately moved away from public subsidy, developing trading and other income to sustain their work on their own terms. At the same time, larger cultural institutions face growing expectations to generate more of their own income. The distinction between choosing financial independence and having it imposed as a requirement felt particularly relevant to current conversations in the UK.
At the New Taipei City Art Museum, an exhibition exploring minjian — a term describing the space between official institutions and everyday life — offered another connection to our work in Indonesia, particularly around how communities represent and preserve their own histories.
The visit opened up some promising conversations about future partnerships, but also provided an opportunity to reflect on questions we’re already grappling with in our own work: how cultural organisations sustain themselves, how communities retain ownership of their stories, and what we might learn from approaches developed in very different contexts.
Want to hear more?
There's a lot more of this than a newsletter can hold - the cats of Houtong and what happens when the thing that brings people isn't the thing the place is about; Toraja and what a funeral costs in two countries; the fort on the Makassar seafront that still carries the name of the admiral who took the city. Longer notes from both trips, plus essays on the sector, are going up on Sud's Substack.
Sign up there if you'd like the fuller version, including the bits that don't resolve neatly.
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
Autumn brought Robert Tressell's century-old story of working people, hardship and hope to Ensemble 84's Playhouse in Horden - staged in a place that knows its themes in its bones. It follows Hamlet and Pits, People and Players, and it's further proof of what grows when culture is built to last rather than staged and struck.
AGAIN
Three years in the making, with its share of delays along the way, AGAIN finally opens in Doha later this month. It’s a new piece of music theatre that brings life under apartheid in South Africa and life under occupation in Palestine onto the same stage, through words, choral song and movement. The idea began with writer and historian Tariq Ali. At its heart is the writing of Gaza-based author Sondos Sabra, drawn from her diaries in Voices of Resistance: Diaries of Genocide (Comma Press).
Commissioned by Qatar Museums.
Abdul Aziz Nasser Theatre, Souq Waqif, 27–31 October.
The NPO year, and an open offer
The Arts Council's National Portfolio round is on us, with guidance out and the application window opening this month. We're working with a handful of organisations on their thinking - not writing their bids, but being the person in the room who asks the awkward question early, while there's still time to do something about it. If you're in the middle of it and want an ear, get in touch. Sometimes it helps to say the thing out loud to someone who isn't on your board.
As ever, thank you for following the work.
Sud, Giulia, Jodie and Lia
Third Version Creative
