'The Archivists' Opening Night
Opening night of The Archivists marked a powerful beginning to a month of shared learning and exchange. The exhibition opened to a strong and welcoming crowd, bringing together artists, organizers, students, neighbors, and partners from Detroit and Chicago. It was especially meaningful to see different networks intersect—university communities meeting neighborhood archivists, cross-city collaborators encountering one another’s work in person, and longtime practitioners sharing space with new audiences.
The Archivists is a month-long exhibition on community archiving and collective memory, presented at the Scarab Club from January 4 through February 4, 2023. Organized by Inside Southwest Detroit, the exhibition brings together artists and community archive initiatives from Detroit and Chicago to explore how everyday people preserve, share, and steward their histories.