iniva (The Institute of International Visual Arts) is delighted to announce the launch of Living Legacies: Collaboration, Community and Radicality, a major four-year project supported by a substantial grant of £1,675,222 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. The initiative will help transform public access to and engagement with iniva’s archive, establishing it as a “living” resource that empowers communities to share knowledge, creativity and lived experience. It will culminate in three major exhibitions, developed with and showcasing the archives alongside leading iniva-associated artists, and presented in partnership with institutions, including Arts Council Collection, UAL: Chelsea College of Arts and Southwark Park Galleries.

Housed in the Stuart Hall Library in London, iniva’s archive is an unparalleled resource that documents the organisation’s history as a radical change-maker, tracing its roots back to the wake of the British Black Arts Movement. It chronicles over 30 years of iniva’s work in decolonising art history, placing Global Majority artists at the forefront through its exhibitions, publications, and events. The archive notably includes records from some of Britain’s most celebrated contemporary artists—such as Dame Sonia Boyce, Matthew Krishanu and Rosa-Johan Uddoh—in addition to documentation of pivotal exhibitions, including Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance (1997), Cities on the Move (1999), Veil (2003-4), and Alien Nation (2006).

Currently, iniva’s archive primarily serves as a specialised resource for artists, curators, and researchers. Over the next four years, Living Legacies will broaden this scope, reaching wider communities in Westminster, Lambeth, Southwark, and beyond. This expansion will be driven by initiatives designed to “activate” the archive—ranging from co-created exhibitions and events to podcasts, oral history interviews with artists, and digital resources. The goal is to transform the archive into a social and creative space where participants can foster their sense of identity, belonging, and cultural memory, while shaping iniva’s archival histories for the future. A cornerstone of the project will be the exhibition programme, scheduled to unfold between 2027 and 2030.

Living Legacies will adopt a co-creation model, embedding artists and cultural practitioners directly within local communities, to deliver a creative heritage programme of artist-led community workshops using iniva’s archival collections. This approach is designed to cultivate intergenerational collaborations, bridging together young people and older adults with artists, educators, and grassroots organisations in these boroughs. This will culminate into a wider public programme of exhibitions with events, heritage and creative workshops, a mobile archive handling collection, a podcast series and oral history interviews. It will also inspire local communities to create new displays in local community hubs, highlighting the lived experience of Black and Global Majority art heritage.

Sepake Angiama, Artistic Director of iniva, said:
“Living Legacies transforms iniva’s archive into a vibrant space where Global Majority histories are actively brought to life across generations and within our communities. The programme champions collaboration, care, and radical imagination to ensure these narratives—which are often marginalised, erased, or overlooked—are not just preserved, but become a site of possibility where people can find their own stories and experiences reflected.
We are deeply grateful to National Lottery players for this significant grant, which gives us the confidence to pursue the necessary additional fundraising for this vital project. To fully achieve the project’s ambition, we are actively engaging supporters and partners to help us unlock an additional £200,000 in match funding, complementing the substantial investment committed by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.”

Stuart McLeod, Director of England, London & South, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said:
“Thanks to National Lottery players, we’re proud to support iniva’s Living Legacies project, which will open up an important and historically significant archive to more people. This project will help ensure that the stories, creativity and cultural heritage of Black and Global Majority artists are not only preserved but actively shared, explored and reimagined with the communities they speak to. Living Legacies will create new opportunities for learning, participation and connection across generations and we’re delighted to support a project that places community collaboration and representation at its heart.”