Throughout this summer, Claye Bowler designed and facilitated pARCHIVE. Taking place in Cross Flatts Park, South Leeds, children were invited to explore the natural environment around them, collecting materials to respond to and creatively assemble. Informed by Claye’s sculptural practice, his background working as a museum registrar and his interest in materiality and tactility, the project aimed to create an archive shaped by children’s right to play, explore, touch and create.

Reflecting on the project, Claye will share his experience of developing and presenting this work in conversation with Aimee Harrison, Co-Curator of Liverpool Biennial 2027.

Their conversation will consider changing ideas, attitudes and work around play and participatory practice in contemporary art, including questions of equity between museum and exhibition contexts and participatory ways of presenting work. Discussing where we place value as a sector, we’re interested in why it’s exciting to place a practice like Claye’s within a children’s play setting, considering the learning from this and the challenges faced.

pARCHIVE is a Yorkshire Contemporary project. It is part of INSIDE OUT, a three-year National Lottery funded programme aiming to improve opportunities for play in Beeston and Beeston Hill, Leeds. As INSIDE OUT concludes later this year, this event forms part of the reflection, legacy and learning of the project. Yorkshire Contemporary is committed to embedding playfulness as a serious and transformative force for artistic practice, learning and engagement.