Name: Explore the Oxfordshire Artweeks and Paul Oliver archives at Brookes
Start: 2026-02-25T15:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-02-25T16:00:00+00:00
Location: Brookes University Headington Campus

Explore the Oxfordshire Artweeks and Paul Oliver archives at Brookes

Two successful grassroots approaches to the arts: Explore the Oxfordshire Artweeks and Paul Oliver archives
About this Event

The Oxford Artists Group launched the first Oxford Artweeks in 1983 with the objective of enabling artists to exhibit their work without depending on galleries as gatekeepers. It was the first initiative of its kind in the UK and has since spread throughout the country. Its importance was recognised in a 1992 governmental report. Oxfordshire Artweeks continues to run, and the 2025 event saw 545 participating artists.

Paul Oliver journeyed through the United States in 1960, interviewing and recording grassroots blues musicians. Oliver was keen to let the musicians speak about their music for themselves, at a time when a white point-of-view tended to dominate discussions about the blues genre. He spoke to many artists, including John Lee Hooker, Sam Lightnin' Hopkins and Victoria Spivey. His work involved delivering BBC radio shows about the genre and was significant in spreading interest in the blues.

Explore the Oxfordshire Artweeks and Paul Oliver archives with Saffron Shore (Special Collections Librarian), Annabel Valentine (Archivist) and Sam Skinner (Senior Lecturer in Fine Art). In both cases, we will give an introduction to the human stories and sequence of events evidenced in the archive and talk about the greater knock-on effects these initiatives had. Attendees will have the opportunity to examine related items from the newly acquired Artweeks archive and the Paul Oliver Archive of African American Music: photos, letters, catalogues, vinyl records, reports etc.

This event is part of the 6th International Creative Industries Festival organised by the Creative Industries Research and Innovation Network at Oxford Brookes University, it is FREE and OPEN TO ALL!There will be a listening station set up to allow for listening to blues music connected to the event. The introduction to both collections together would be around 30 minutes long, attendees would be welcome to stay and explore the material until closing.