Overview

The David Hughes Live Art Archive incorporates the records of Hybrid magazine, Live Art Listings and liveartmagazine.

David Hughes was founding editor of the bi-monthly Hybrid magazine and Live Art Listings (1992 – 1994), which launched following the closure of Performance Magazine. Hybrid folded after just seven issues, but David continued as editor of its successor liveartmagazine (1994 – 2003), with hundreds of copies of each issue being made freely available at arts venues and colleges across the UK. During this time David also worked as an independent journalist and arts writer, was a board member of Dance 4 and Blast Theory, and lectured extensively in performance studies, including at Nottingham Trent and De Montfort universities. 

Donated to the Theatre Collection in 2009, the archive comprises over 230 boxes of material related to David’s roles as publishing editor, lecturer, writer, and producer.

What the collection holds

The collection divides into three main series: records relating to Hybrid magazine and Live Art Listings, records relating to liveartmagazine, and records relating to David’s undertakings as a lecturer and writer.  Alongside administrative papers and annotated design proofs, the series relating to the magazines include a large amount of press releases, photographs, correspondence and publicity material from artists, organisations and writers sent for potential inclusion within the magazines. Together these form a comprehensive record of UK-based performance and live art events from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s. The third series contains notes towards lectures and workshops, undergraduate curricula and courses, conference papers and essays, relating to live art, writing and performance.

Further information

The collection is not yet fully catalogued, but box lists are available on request. Please contact us for further information.