{"id":1936,"date":"2026-08-06T13:34:56","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T12:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/liveartscotland.org\/?p=1936"},"modified":"2026-08-06T13:34:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T12:34:57","slug":"on-archive-sales-and-public-property","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/liveartscotland.org\/index.php\/2026\/08\/06\/on-archive-sales-and-public-property\/","title":{"rendered":"On archive sales and public property"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The possibility of a private sale of the Third Eye and CCA archive<\/a> calls into sharp focus the status of archives as public resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Archives can sometimes be challenging to access: necessary measures to preserve the physical condition of records or protect data privacy run alongside institutional norms (real and imagined) which create barriers to access, or create the impression that special, privileged permission is required before a single box can be opened. In practice, though, archivists extend what I’ve experience as sometimes profound forms of generosity to those who arrive at their door: the work I\u2019ve undertaken as part of the Live Art Scotland project – particularly in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic – would not have been possible without their support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Third Eye \/ CCA archive was exceptionally accessible, in large part owing to the work undertaken to catalogue the collection during the Glasgow School of Art and CCA Glasgow Miracle project<\/a> but also to the generosity, knowledge and skill of the staff who have led its custodianship, most recently archivist Kristen Nelson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Working on the borders between established art forms, live art can too easily fall into the cracks of conventional archival practices (either present but invisible, or ignored as marginal to the \u2018true\u2019 work of programming and curation). Working with collections such as the Third Eye \/ CCA archive where experimental practice is central to an organisati0n’s history offers powerful means to challenge and expand existing cultural narratives – most especially in calling attention to the presence and contribution of work by queer, disabled, Black and global majority artists in Scotland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reporting in the last few weeks suggests that the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Culture and Gaelic, M\u00e0iri McAllan, has been given \u2018concrete assurances\u2019 that the archive will not be sold privately, will be retained in whole and kept available to the public<\/a>. Efforts continue across the archive sector to find a secure, public home for the archive. Though I\u2019m not involved in the process, I know that this work has been quietly ongoing since the start of the year, involving local and national partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The language of liquidation and auctions can lead us to think about archives in terms of financial rather than cultural assets – but it\u2019s by thinking about collections like that of the Third Eye and CCA as public resources that we can understand their greater value. Archives like the Third Eye \/ CCA collection need custodians but they belong to the communities of artistic practice, culture and location in which they reside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The possibility of a private sale of the Third Eye and CCA archive calls into sharp focus the status of archives as public resources. Archives can sometimes be challenging to access: necessary measures to preserve the physical condition of records or protect data privacy run alongside institutional norms (real and imagined) which create barriers to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/liveartscotland.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/liveartscotland.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/liveartscotland.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liveartscotland.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liveartscotland.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1936"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/liveartscotland.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1939,"href":"https:\/\/liveartscotland.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1936\/revisions\/1939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/liveartscotland.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liveartscotland.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liveartscotland.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}