Art at the Archive

Reimagining Unforgotten Lives

Art at the Archive

Art Exhibition

Art at the Archive was a creative project to bring to life archival records of people of colour from London's past with commissioned art works, inspired by our 'Unforgotten Lives' exhibition previously held at The London Archives in 2023. It featured five new works by diverse artists Annie-Marie Akussah, Elyssa Rider, and Tara Jerome-Bernabé. The artwork was on display and is now archived as part of the permanent collection at The London Archives.

The artists

Meet the artists involved in the project.

Our Work

Annie-Marie Akussah

Find out about Annie's work

Biography and interview with Annie-Marie Akussah, an Art at the Archive artist at The London Archives

Our Work

Elyssa Rider

Find out about Elyssa's work

Biography and interview with Elyssa Rider, an Art at the Archive artist at The London Archives

Our Work

Tara Jerome-Bernabé

Find out about Tara's work

Biography and interview with Tara Jerome-Bernabé, an Art at the Archive artist at The London Archives

The Inspiration

Unforgotten Lives exhibition

Art at the Archive brought together three artists to produce artworks which respond to, reflect on, or was inspired by our 'Unforgotten Lives' exhibition. This unveiled the stories of Londoners of African, Caribbean, Asian and Indigenous heritage who lived and worked in the city between 1560 and 1860; their experiences etched into the very fabric of London’s archives. This stemmed from the 'Switching the lens project'.

Our exhibition was a tapestry of these lives - weaving together vibrant threads of love, family, ambition, and resilience, juxtaposed with the stark realities of discrimination and injustice.

To Learn more about the inspiration for this project check out our page - "About the Art at the Archive project"

About the Art at the Archive project

Quotations

Read what the artist's and others said about the project.

In the same way that the team behind ‘Unforgotten Lives’ are to be congratulated for curating such a superb exhibition, Annie-Marie, Tara, and Elyssa deserve our gratitude for using their considerable skills to interpret these people’s lives and introduce us to them – many of us for the first time.
Munsur Ali, Chairman of the City of London Corporation’s Culture, Heritage, and Libraries Committee

I hope that people will feel that my work illuminates the sentiment behind the 'Unforgotten Lives' exhibition and the importance of bringing these individuals to light so that we can continue to create better foundations of our historical understandings of that time.
Tara Jerome-Bernabé, artist

While appreciating the beauty in their art works, we would do well to remember the ugliness of racism, the despicable trade in human beings, and the extreme hardship that the people featured in these pieces, and many others before and after them, had to endure.
Munsur Ali, Chairman of the City of London Corporation’s Culture, Heritage, and Libraries Committee