The Hong Kong History Centre at the University of Bristol is starting to build up a new set of Hong Kong Collections within the University Library’s Special Collections, which will focus on encouraging donations of privately-held archives. We encourage people and organisations with historic ties to Hong Kong to consider donating privately-held records for long term preservation in the collection. The aim is to provide different perspectives to those found in government records. This is a pioneering initiative in the UK: no other British institution prioritises the collection of records like this relating to Hong Kong’s history.   

 

The initial focus is on visual material, to support the development of a new online ‘Historical Photographs of Hong Kong’ open access platform which will launch in late 2025. Ahead of that, in collaboration with WMA, the Royal Photographic Society and the Bristol Photo Festival, we are already showcasing how such collections can support new creative responses with the exhibition ‘Realms of Memory’, showcasing new work by contemporary artists Billy H.C Kwok, Jay Lau, and Lau Wai, which is being held at the RPS as part of the 2024 Bristol Photo Festival.  

 

But why build an archive? What are the challenges? Recent years have seen a number of focused initiatives to encourage public participation in building up collections about a specific community, or place, or period, and in engaging with them once established. This panel provides an opportunity for those interested in learning more about such projects, and their methods, challenges, responsibilities and ethics, to discuss this topic with a team experienced in these issues from the heritage, museum, university and creative sectors. 

 

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Panel 

Alejandro Acín, Director, Bristol Photo Festival, Chair 

Robert Bickers, Co-Director, Hong Kong History Centre,  

Lisa Graves, Curator World Cultures, Bristol City Council 

Pete Insole. Head of Urban Design and Principal Historic Environment Officer, Bristol City Council 

 

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Alejandro Acín is founder-director of IC Visual Lab (ICVL), an independent photography platform. In 2023, he was appointed Bristol Photo Festival Director, and its second edition is produced and managed by IC Visual Lab. Beyond ICVL, Alex has a track record of activating historic archives, including Historical Photographs of China 1850-1950 (University of Bristol), the Nepal Picture Library and the British Empire & Commonwealth Collection, and of managing the Martin Parr Foundation library. Acín has produced personal projects exploring ideas around collective memory and politics and his work has been exhibited in Colombia, France, the UK and Spain. 

 

Lisa Graves is Curator of World Cultures at Bristol Culture, with over 25 years of experience working in museums across the UK.  She has worked in areas of decolonial practice for many years and has undertaken several repatriation projects. After project managing the ‘Colston Statute: What Next?’ display in 2021, being part of the project team for the installation of the statue in a display around protest against racial injustice in 2024, she is now working with communities in Bristol to develop new ways of responding to TTEA (Transatlantic Trafficking of Enslaved Africans) and legacies of colonialism in our service. 

 

Pete Insole is the Urban Design Team Manager in the Planning Department at Bristol City Council and has nearly 30 years’ experience of working in heritage and place practices in Bristol. During 2010-11 Pete managed the English Heritage funded project to create Know Your Place, an online resource that won the ESRI UK Local Government Vision Award, 2011, the Urban Design Group Francis Tibbalds Award in 2014 and Heritage Angel Award in 2018. For the last 12 years, Pete has been using Know Your Place to develop a story of place concept that provides a platform for multiple voices to collectively share and define Bristol’s heritage through historic photos, oral histories, postcards and other formal and informal archives. 

 

Robert Bickers is a Professor of History at the University of Bristol, and a Co-Director of the Hong Kong History Project. Since 2006 he has worked on collections initiatives, including ‘Historical Photographs of China’, and a series of collaborations with ‘Know Your Place’.