Peterlee Archive in Durham County Council
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In 1975, Artist Placement Group approached new towns to set up the terms for artists to propose projects. The Development Corporation of Peterlee New Town responded and in 1976, Stuart Brisley was appointed. The project contained three distinct parts:
▪ to develop an ongoing process of collecting and disseminating information under the title History Within Living Memory
▪ to establish a publicly available history of the Development Corporation made in association with the Sociology Dept of the University of Durham.
▪ to introduce a community workshop which began in 1977
Stuart Brisley returned to work on the Peterlee Project in 2004. Activities from this period including notes on the unrealised Miners Opera are included in the text section under the 70s for continuity.
In 2012 Raven Row organised an exhibition entitled The Individual and the Organisation: Artist Placement Group 1966-1979. During the preparations for this show Stuart Brisley discovered that critical parts of the Peterlee Project he developed in association with the Sociology Department of the University of Durham, amongst other items including large numbers of photographic material, had been removed from the public library in County Durham by Artist Placement Group and subsequently sold to the Tate in 2004 without his knowledge or consent. He withdrew from the Raven Row exhibition.
Please go to the Text section for the following documents:
An APG Draft contract, c.1970
The Artist and Artist Placement Group / Studio International, 1972
No It Is Not On – Article relating to Artist Placement Group 1972
Observations on Peterlee by Stuart Brisley, 1976–1977
Artist Project Peterlee: First Peterlee Report, 1976
Artist Porject Peterlee: Second Peterlee Report, 1977
Peterlee Report 1976–1977
Artist Project Peterlee: Renamed by Easington District Council as 'People Past and Present', Interview with Mr A. Allen on 28 April 1977
Caroline Tisdale describes how the people of Peterlee, a 30-year-old 'new town' are creating their own archive, Guardian article on Peterlee, 1977
The Peterlee Project, an article by Stuart Howard, 2004
Culture 24 article: 28 Years After It Was Begun Peterlee Artwork Nears Completion, 2004
The Incidental Collection – Stuart Brisley's Peterlee Project, by Marc Crison, Mute Magazine, 2004
Miners Opera – Notes on unrealised Miners Opera, 2004
Publication:
Stuart Brisley : The Peterlee Project 1976-77
The Peterlee Project offers a useful diagnostic tool to evaluate the current relations between ‘performance’ and ‘history’ because it was explicitly conceived neither as an archive nor as a work of art. The criterion for evaluating the success or failure of the project was practical and political, rather than aesthetic, namely to raise the historical consciousness of the local people, especially with regards to the impact of the Peterlee Development Corporation upon their lives.
– Dr Sanja Perovic "Performing History: Some Keywords"
Table of Contents
Performing History: Some Keywords, Dr Sanja Perovic
The Peterlee Project in Tate Archive: Representation of parts of The Peterlee Project as it is held in Tate Archive
The Peterlee Project 1976-77 , edited from Stuart Brisley’s Peterlee Project notes
Peterlee New Town, edited from Stuart Brisley’s Peterlee Project notes
Of Commune and Community, Tim Brennan
The Peterlee Project 1976–1977 is published on the occasion of Stuart Brisley’s exhibition State of Denmark at Modern Art Oxford, 19 September 2014 — 16 November 2014
Modern Art Oxford, 30 Pembroke St. Oxford, OX1 1BP, England
Supported by Arts Council England, Modern Art Oxford and Tate Archive
Stuart Brisley
The Peterlee Project 1976–1977
published by
Antipyrine, 2014
isbn: 978-87-93108-12-7
print: Specialtrykkeriet Viborg, Denmark
binding: Bogbinderiet Aarhus, Denmark
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