Brown Futurity: How to Create an Archive

Brown Futurity: How to Create an Archive is a hands-on workshop designed to address persistent gaps in knowledge around artist-led and community-based archives. While institutions have historically shaped what is preserved and remembered, many artists and communities continue to face barriers in documenting and sustaining their own histories. This workshop responds to that gap by offering practical tools and critical frameworks for building archives from the ground up.

Presented as part of Whittier College Poet StoryLab, and led by archivist Xaviera Flores, the session brings together practical expertise and community-centered approaches to archiving.

Participants will be guided through foundational questions that shape archival practice: How can we begin to preserve and document our own materials? What are the first steps in organizing an artist archive? How do we determine what to keep, and what to let go? What does it mean to collect responsibly, and for whom is the archive being built?

Designed for artists, cultural workers, and community members, this session provides a practical toolkit to begin building sustainable archives, while encouraging participants to think critically about authorship, access, and long-term stewardship.