Activating an Archive

August 10–11, 2024

Archives are more than just dusty papers filed away in an old office or library. Archives are any accumulation of papers, letters, photographs, or artifacts that have social or historical value. Even family photo albums or personal records are archives that gain new meanings with innovative interpretations or shifted contexts. ALICE PROUJANSKY’s recent book Hard Times are Fighting Times uses archival research and documentary photography to examine the legacy of radical activism in her family. 

In this workshop, participants will reinvigorate their artistic practices while developing new approaches to working with archives in their practices and/or classrooms. Participants will be asked to bring selections from an archive (personal, municipal, political, etc.) to examine, expand, think through, and rework through conversation and hands-on techniques. This workshop is designed for photographers, arts educators, classroom teachers, or other individuals curious about investigating archives and incorporating that process into their artistic and teaching practice.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 10: 10:00 – 3:00 pm
SUNDAY, AUGUST 11: 10:00 – 3:00 pm

WHERE: Students will meet at 25 Dederick Street, Kingston, NY.

TUITION: $550
CPW MEMBERS: $450
CLASS LIMIT: 12

Please note: Registering for a workshop entails a $100 non-refundable fee for cancellations. Please read our full workshop policies here.

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Alice Proujansky is a photographer and quilter looking at family labor: birth, work, motherhood and identity. Her photobook, Hard Times are Fighting Times (Gnomic Book, 2023), uses archival and documentary photography to examine the legacy of radical activism in her family. It was shortlisted for the Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award 2024, and selected for an exhibition at Baxter St.

Alice’s work has been published by Aperture, The Guardian, The New Republic, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, The New York Times, The Nation, Virginia Quarterly Review and others. She has received support from the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, International Women’s Media Fund, Magnum Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, Peleh Fund, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and Women Photograph. 

Alice has led workshops for Aperture, the Bass Museum, Fotografiska, the Magnum Foundation and Working Assumptions. She is Aperture’s teaching artist, and her book Go Photo! An Activity Book for Kids was published by Aperture in 2016. A member of Women Photograph, Alice grew up in Greenfield, MA. She graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Banner image © Alice Proujansky.