Our archives & special collections

Canterbury archive collections

The Institutional Archive includes a wide range of prospectuses, college and course information, annual reports, award ceremonies, student fashion shows, exhibition catalogues and press cuttings from the Kent art and design schools and their subsequent mergers:

• Canterbury School of Art
• Maidstone College of Art
• Medway College of Design
• KIAD (Kent Institute of Art and Design, Rochester, Maidstone, Canterbury)
• University for the Creative Arts, Rochester and Canterbury

The Herbert Read Gallery Archive consists of administrative papers, publicity material, flyers, press releases and photographs generated by the gallery from 1983 to 2007. The Herbert Read Gallery is the campus gallery at UCA Canterbury, founded in 1984. It has hosted exhibitions and events from artists such as Yoko Ono, Jeremy Deller, Mark Titchner, Mike Nelson, Hans Haacke, Fischli & Weiss, Atelier Van Lieshout, Adam Chodzko and Susan Hiller. The gallery also displays UCA students’ annual BA and MA Graduation shows.

Al Kailani was an alumnus who graduated from Canterbury School of Architecture in 1975. His designs were influenced by Islamic art and architecture, religion, and philosophy. This collection consists of photographs, architectural drawings and plans, providing a fascinating insight into the development of his architectural projects.

East Kent Public Art Projects archives from 1984 to 2015.

The Drew Gallery Projects serves as evidence of the earliest developments in East Kent of the role of public art and regeneration, a forerunner to initiatives such as Stour Valley Arts, Whitstable Biennale, and the Folkestone Triennial. Between the 1980s and 90s, Sandra Drew curated temporary art and sculpture exhibitions alongside the Canterbury Festival. The archive comprises of a range of archive material such as posters, reviews, and photographic documentation.

Stour Valley Arts were an arts organisation which engaged the public through commissioned art projects in the context of King’s Wood, Ashford, Kent. The collection exemplifies the continuing development of public art in East Kent from 1994 to 2015. It contains information regarding the commissioning of these projects in the form of visitor books, funding bids, minutes, business plans, photographs, publicity, and educational material. 

Canterbury special book collections

Our extensive collection of Artists’ Books demonstrates narratives through illustration and graphic expression.

There are two zine collections; the general zine collection contributed to by artists, staff and students and The Public Zine Library Collection, a commissioned project for the 2014 Whitstable Biennale, a collaboration between Collaborative Research Group, UCA and CRATE.

Sir Herbert Read (1893 – 1968) was a British art historian, poet, literary critic, and philosopher, best known for his collection of books on art. The Herbert Read Book Collection consists of books on poetry, sculpture, drawing, art history and theory, and psychology.

Urban Fox Press brought together artists and musicians from across Medway and gave them a platform to perform, exhibit and publish their work. It was founded by Dave Wise in Chatham in 2003. The Press produced high-quality, low-print run books by local artists and writers, including Billy Childish, Wolf Howard, Sexton Ming, Bill Lewis, Zara Carpenter, Katherine May, Joe Machine, Michael Curtis, The Medway Mermaids and David Wise.

Epsom archive collections

The Institutional Archive for Epsom School of Art & Design includes:

• Minutes of the Academic Board and Governors meetings from 1943 to the present day
• A selection of prospectuses and course timetables from 1896 – 1990
• Building information including blueprints and plans of the original and current sites
• Exhibition catalogues and publications covering the entire history of the Epsom campus
• A collection of marketing, publicity and press cuttings.

The Diagram Group (1960s - 2000s) or Diagram Visual Information was founded in 1960 by Bob Chapman and Bruce Robertson. They were a cooperative group of graphic designers, writers, artists, and editors producing high quality graphic and text content, including diagrams, charts, tables, maps and illustrations. The group was developed as a supplier to publishers of visualised information in Britain. Our collection consists of original manuscripts and published books.

The Typographic Circle (2008 - 2016) was founded by Maggie Lewis in 1976, who brought together people with an interest in typography and type. The poster collection publicises talks and exhibitions by the Circle. Designers who presented at the TypoCircle events over the years include Alan Kitching, Jonathan Barnbrook, Marina Willer and Snask.

The Stuart Aitken Research Files contain technical fashion research notes, illustrated pattern cutting and fashion and textile history covering the Architecture of Clothing 300AD to 1900AD and Architecture of Fashion from Modern to Postmodern.

Epsom special book collections

The collection of Artists’ Books demonstrates the diverse and creative nature of this format. It is an inspirational resource for fine art, fashion, photography.

Our zines consist of an evolving and dynamic LGBT+ collection and fashion zines produced by Fashion Promotion students.

Farnham archive collections

The Institutional Archive comprises of material from faculties, departments, and administrative bodies, committee records, prospectuses, photographs, press cuttings and student magazines and the administrative records of the merger of the six art and design schools across Kent and Surrey in 2005:

• Farnham School of Art 1951 – 1979
• Guildford School of Art 1945 – 1969
• West Surrey College of Art and Design 1969 – 1994
• Surrey Institute of Art and Design 1994 – 2005
• University College for the Creative Arts Farnham

Bob Godfrey, the internationally celebrated animator, founded the Animation programme at UCA Farnham in the 1970s. The Bob Godfrey Animation Archive include scripts, storyboards, correspondence, animation cels, pencil drawings, award certificates and photographs, along with the studio’s collection of books, now the Bob Godfrey Library.

Tessa Boffin was a lecturer in the photography department of the university up until her death in 1992. As a photographer and performance artist she developed her artistic practise around LGBT, gay and lesbian culture and produced work in response to HIV/AIDS. She co-edited two seminal theory books - Stolen Glances: Lesbians Take Photographs and Ecstatic Antibodies: Resisting the AIDS Mythology. The Tessa Boffin Archive contains her private collection of photographs, books, postcards, images, teaching and research, biographical material and her books. The Tessa Boffin Library consists of 509 books covering photography, gender identity, lesbianism, feminism, sex, women, AIDS, psychoanalysis, and pornography.

Our Business Cards Collection collection is unique – 240,000 business cards from across the world: ephemera dating from the mid-nineteenth century. The collection provides a representative set demonstrating the development of the business calling card as a medium of advertising over more than a century.

The Working Press published books by and about Working Class Artists and other underrepresented marginalised groups in the arts. The Working Press Archive (1986 - 1996) consists of correspondence, book reviews, publishing and networking activity, and an amazing selection of zines, pamphlets, artists books and activist ephemera, collected by Stefan Szczelkun reflecting activism and politics of the mid 1980s – 1990s.

The Dick Arnall Archive (1944 - 2007) reflects the histories of artist-made animations in the UK and Europe from the early 1960s to the late 2000s. The collection includes material from significant artist-focused animation events and organisations such as the Cambridge Animation Festival (Arnall was a founder), Formations programming for Channel 4, and the Arts Council England/Channel 4 Animate! scheme (1990-2009). Arnall was a highly influential animation producer who ran the innovative and productive Finetake film company. The collection consists of video, photographs, production agreements, correspondence, finance, festival programs and magazines.

Farnham special book collections

As well as being of interest to students of fine art, illustration, photography, graphic and book design, our collection of Artists’ Books & Zines also includes inspirational examples of unusual narrative structure, expressing ideas in three-dimensional form and using text and typography.

bookRoom is a platform for multidisciplinary and collaborative modes of inquiry around the photobook and the printed page, based in Farnham and led by Emmanuelle Waeckerlé since 2009 (formed in 2004 with Prof Anna Fox). bookRoom engages with making in print form (bookRoom press), public events (artist talks, conferences, performances and exhibitions) and online.