Outreach projects

We are proud to be involved in a variety of community-led projects that explore different themes and ideas - documented in our archive records - to inspire creative outputs and collect shared memory. 

Project leads include students and staff from London Metropolitan University, but also partners across different charity organisations and local authorities. Funding support for these projects has kindly been provided by the University, individual bequests or external bodies like the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Irish Emigrant Support Programme. 

  

Student Live Briefs

An important part of the internal outreach we do at the University is to create opportunities that provide live brief experiences for our students using primary source material from Special Collections. 

Since 2024, this has included funded projects using material from The Archive of the Irish in Britain and the Trades Union Congress Library collections. 

Artist in Residence 

In June 2024, we invited one student from the School of Art, Architecture and Design to respond to the Archive of the Irish in Britain, documenting Irish migration. Freya explored migration, memory, and identity through a digital animation using archival imagery and printed her work onto a large format scroll.

Her work reimagines archival records, reflecting how personal and collective memories shift over time - Read more

  

Irish in Britain Memory Box 

In Spring 2025, BA Product and Furniture Design students developed the Memory Box project using oral histories from Irish migrants in Britain. They created an interactive box with nine themed objects, each triggering audio recordings to support storytelling and reminiscence.

Using RFID tagging and 3D printing, in collaboration with the School of Computing and Digital Media, the box is designed to travel to community groups to promote wellbeing and memory-sharing. Read more

 

Grunwick 50: Visual Design and the Archive

In April 2026, Illustration and Animation and Graphic Design students created visual art responses for our 'Grunwick 50' display area using archival material from the 1976-78 strike. Part of a 'work-ready' placement, they produced over two weeks contemporary designs like posters and handouts based on primary sources.

The project combined research and professional practice to make the archive accessible while maintaining historical accuracy. Read more

 

Oral History

'Oral history has grown, over the past 50 years, to become a major channel through which people can participate in documenting their lived experience. Valuing the lives of marginalised groups in society, it creates a ‘history from below’, empowers participants and includes more diverse perspectives on the past.' 

Centre for Life Writing and Oral History, London Metropolitan University 

A number of our outreach projects have included the collection of oral history interviews, recorded to preserve the spoken voice of individuals and communities who are not widely represented in our archives. 

This more inclusive practice of collecting social memory, can allow for a greater participation in these projects and support wider health and wellbeing activities. 

These include interviews recorded for the I Only Came over for a Couple of Years, Healing the Wounds and Black Trade Unionist oral history projects.