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Record
WSI - Welfare State International Archive
Ref No
WSI
Title
Welfare State International Archive
Description
The archive of the arts organisation Welfare State International (WSI), 1968 - 2006.
Mixed media collection covering the range of WSI’s activities. Over half of the collection (by volume) comprises the records created during the planning and execution of over 500 individual productions or ‘gigs’. This includes research and administration paperwork, correspondence, scripts, sheet music, lyrics, photographs, posters and associated publicity material, AV recordings, and evaluation reports. The collection also includes similar material concerning their education and training work.
Alongside this, the collection contains administrative records, generated by the members of the company (weekly planning meeting minutes and internal newsletters) as well as by the holding company, Galactic Smallholdings (Executive Board meeting minutes and reports). Financial records include annual accounts as well as extensive documentation regarding funding and grant applications to regional, national and international bodies. Records concerning the company’s premises include architectural drawings, photographs, sales particulars, and deeds, as well as an Artist’s Book concerning the genesis of WSI’s National Lottery funded arts centre, Lanternhouse.
WSI kept and collated reviews of their productions and articles about the company’s work from local and national newspapers and magazines. Most of the cuttings were kept in annual scrapbooks. The company’s own publicity material includes booklets, reports, posters, leaflets and flyers; the collection also includes a considerable amount of design records created in the making of this publicity material, as well as their own publications and music albums.
The Welfare State International collection was repackaged, conserved and catalogued as part of the Theatre Collection’s “Firestarters” project, 2021-2025. The project was funded by the Wellcome Trust.
Date
1968 - 2006
Arrangement
WSI/1 Company Management and Administration
WSI/2 Company Sites, Premises and Vehicles
WSI/3 Finance
WSI/4 Company Marketing and Publicity
WSI/5 Productions
WSI/6 Education and Training
WSI/7 Publications
[WSI/8 Rites of Passage work – to be added during the cataloguing of associated Fox and Gill collection in 2026]
Related Material
FG - John Fox & Sue Gill Archive
Image
Extent
c.300 boxes
Level
Collection
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