Women at the RCA: Past, Present, and Future

Women at the RCA: Past, Present, and Future

The Living Archive collects and preserves the often-overlooked contributions of women at the RCA, ensuring their achievements are visible and accessible for future generations— the workshop served as a collaborative format to gather materials and stories for our Instagram archive.

Introduction: The Living Archive: Remembering Women at RCA

• Women’s contributions in art, design, research, and culture are often overlooked.
• The Living Archive focuses on visibility, accessibility, and care to ensure its impact is remembered.
• The workshop was a space to share stories, gather materials, and rethink what’s worth remembering.
• The final outcome is a Living Archive on Instagram to actively document and share these contributions.

Key Questions

• How do archives reinforce or challenge power?
  
  • Archives shape history, but who decides what gets remembered?
  • Traditional storytelling often erases women’s contributions.
  • Questioning archival practices helps create a fuller, more inclusive record.

• What makes a story ‘worthy’ of preservation?
  
  • Conventional archives focus on big names and milestones, ignoring personal stories.
  • What gets included—and what gets left out—shapes historical narratives.
  • Expanding the record amplifies forgotten voices, especially RCA women before us.

Archiving as Care

• Archiving isn’t just about records—it’s about honoring legacies.
• A visit to the London Archives reinforced the idea that preservation is recognition.
• Saving these stories is a way of saying: “Your work mattered.”
• This project ensures women’s histories are valued and protected.

About the Outcome

Following the workshop and our research efforts, we created an Instagram archive to organize and showcase the information we gathered.

We chose this Instagram platform because it is widely used by our generation and easily accessible anytime, anywhere. Compared to other digital websites that may face network restrictions or firewall issues, this platform ensures a more seamless and inclusive reach.