Living Memory: Photography and Life Stories from across the Black Country (2018–2022) was a major National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England project. Developed and delivered in partnership with Dudley Archives and The Community and History Archive Service, Sandwell, it explored, recorded, and celebrated the region’s unique identity through personal photography and life stories.

The project created a significant new community archive, comprising over 60 long-form oral histories alongside digitised personal photography collections. A broad public engagement programme—including 18 exhibitions, over 100 events, and 12 artist commissions—brought these stories to life across the Black Country, culminating in a final exhibition at The New Art Gallery Walsall.

Focused on the family album, memory, and sense of place, the project worked cross-culturally and intergenerationally, actively involving diverse communities, young people, and older residents. The legacy of the project continues through Living Memory Project CIC.