Relocating Amber

Dear Friends,

We’re delighted to share a major new update for the AmberSide Collection.

With support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Collection has been deposited on loan with Newcastle University Special Collections, opening up new possibilities for research, teaching and public access. At the same time, Side is expanding its programme of projects, artist development, education and community activity across the North East, bringing documentary photography and film into more accessible public spaces.

This is a significant step forward for the Collection and for the future of Side’s work across the region. Thank you, as always, for the support, messages and belief that have helped make it possible. There is much more to come.

With care,
The AmberSide Trust

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RELOCATING AMBER

National Lottery Heritage Fund support secures major new public future for the AmberSide Collection

The AmberSide Trust, one of the UK’s most significant documentary and film collections has received £242,508 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for Relocating Amber, a major new project that will protect the world-renowned AmberSide Collection while expanding public access to it across the North East. 

The project will bring one of the UK’s most significant documentary photography and film collections on loan to Newcastle University’s Special Collections, enabling people to encounter the Collection through exhibitions, screenings, education and community programmes across the region. 

Built over more than five decades, the AmberSide Collection contains more than 20,000 photographs, around 100 films and extensive paper and digital archives documenting working class communities, mining, shipyards, housing, protest, youth culture, family, migration and everyday life across the North East and beyond. Key elements of the Collection were inscribed onto UNESCO’s UK Memory of the World Register in 2011. 

Under the custodianship of Newcastle University Special Collections, the preservation of the Collection will be supported within specialist archival facilities, whilst opening the works up to new opportunities for public access, research, teaching and engagement through Newcastle University Library.

At the same time, Side, the delivery team for the AmberSide Trust’s exhibitions, will expand the screening and public programmes through collaborations throughout the North East.  Rather than being centred in a single venue, Side and its partners will bring photographs, films and local histories directly into the communities they were made with and about, through exhibitions, screenings, talks and events across the region.

The project will also create new pathways for photographers, artists, filmmakers and heritage practitioners. From Side’s new curatorial office at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, practitioners will be able to access the Trust’s reference library, and receive portfolio reviews and project advice, supporting the development of new documentary work rooted in place, research and social engagement. 

Amber Education will continue to use the Collection in classrooms, connecting children and young people with local history, place and lived experience through inter-generational community projects centred around photography and film. 

Laura Laffler, Managing Director of the AmberSide Trust said:“The AmberSide Collection was built through long-term relationships with communities across the North East. This project protects that work for the future while opening up new ways for people to encounter and use the stories it contains. Through collaboration with Newcastle University, Side’s regional programme, Amber Education and our new curatorial office, we can care for the Collection properly while sharing it more widely and supporting the next generation of documentary practitioners.”

Jill Taylor-Roe, Director of Academic Services and the Newcastle University Library said:  “Newcastle University is proud to partner with Amber to safeguard their incredible archive, which has documented and celebrated working-class culture for more than fifty years. Our nationally accredited archive service will curate the collection to ensure that future generations may benefit from access to these resources. We look forward to enabling wider community engagement with the archive and are excited by the opportunities that will be afforded to students and researchers through having enhanced access to this  iconic collection.”

Helen Featherstone, Director, England, North at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said:  “Preserving heritage is very important to us at The National Lottery Heritage Fund and we’re proud to be able to support the safeguarding of this incredibly significant collection thanks to National Lottery players. Working with Newcastle University, it is fantastic news that AmberSide Trust will unlock many new opportunities for the public to engage with this important archive that showcases and celebrates the wonderful heritage of the North East.”

Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage. Relocating Amber is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, Relocating Amber will support collections care, conservation rehousing, archive integration, digital access, education activity, practitioner development and a new programme of exhibitions, screenings and public events across the North East. 

This project marks a major new public chapter for the AmberSide Collection, protecting a nationally significant archive while ensuring stories of working-class life, community memory and social change remain public, local and active.  

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Press enquiries should be sent with the subject line "Relocating Amber Press Enquiry" to [email protected]