Contact us:
Zarna Hart
z.hart@arts.ac.uk
Urjuan Toosy
u.toosy@arts.ac.uk
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An Archive is a School
Summer Programme
What is it?
An Archive is a School is a public-facing programme that allows for hands-on exploration of archives and incorporating them as powerful tools and resources for early-career designers.
The programme is led by Urjuan Toosy and Zarna Hart, graphic designers and design educators.
Why Archives?
Archives are political spaces and vital sites for knowledge exchange. Both traditional and contemporary archives reflect power structures of past and recent histories, celebrating some voices while erasing others.
By combining design methods with the archival process, we provide an opportunity for participants to cultivate curiosity, reclaim narratives, and develop skills in conveying research in a visual manner. The project seeks to empower participants to discover culturally relevant stories and broaden institutional histories, transforming their approach to design research, and making it an integral part of their design practices.
An Archive is a School participant engagement (2026)
The critical disparity in design education
As graphic designers and design lecturers, we saw the gaps between design curricula and a changing demographic of cohorts. This is also reflected in all aspects of design sectors, where Global Majority practitioners remain continuously underrepresented. It was as important as it was personal to us that the programme followed these key motives:
✸ Foster a deeper interest in academic pathways
✸ Close the attainment gap in design education
✸ Develop considered, tested and visually-rich work to their portfolios
✸ Improve transition from college to career progression
✸ Building upon a direct network to industry contacts for participants
✸ Strengthening connections across design communities in institutions, schools, industries, local neighbourhoods
By centering marginalised narratives in design archives, the program directly tackles urgent systemic disparities in both institutions and the wider society today. We specifically choose to work with global majority participants in the hope of facilitating a solution to the growing disparities in design education.
Data from the Ethnic Representation Index highlights a significant awarding gap at the university we teach at, reaching 19.3% for Black students and 12.3% for BAME students. Furthermore, National Student Survey (NSS) data indicates that Black and BAME students, on average, have a worse university experience than their White peers.
How it works
The pedagogical approach involves in-person contact along with online engagement via enrichment exercises. Through both pathways, participants are guided through exercises in object study, archival research, ideation, studio testing, and speculative storytelling. We aim to encourage differing perspectives, directly involving participants in the act of broadening history through archival material that resonates with them directly.
The project aims to create a circular system of knowledge exchange, establishing a dynamic network between institutions, along with a digital archive that provides both pedagogical models and practical insights.
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Project Summary
An Archive Is A School
Who is involved?
Participants✸ Undergraduate design students in London
✸ Postgraduate design students in London
✸ Art & Design higher education alumni
✸ Early-career designers
✸ Those interested in graphic design, archival practice, and/or design research
Facilitators
✸ Urjuan Toosy & Zarna Hart
Partners (currently)
✸ iniva / The Stuart Hall Library
✸ University of the Arts London
How does it work?
Duration✸ 2.5 weeks (Summer)
✸ Custom formats available upon request
Structure at a glance
✸ Two contact sessions per week
✸ Independant study required in-between the structured sessions
✸ Optional curated evening talks and events
Pedagogical approach
✸ Research and Studio-centred workshops
✸ Zero expectation on a finalised outcome
✸ Anti-tutorial environment
✸ 2:3 teaching time to independent study
✸ Online sign-posting via Padlet
What will participants create?
Individual Outputs✸ Design interventions surfacing underrepresented narratives
✸ Public-facing portfolio pieces demonstrating social impact
✸ Industry networks and professional contacts
Collective Outputs
✸ Digital archive documenting all project work
✸ (Coming soon) Public display at major cultural institution
✸ (Coming soon) Participant-led workshops exploring inclusive design histories
Why This Matters
As cultural institutions reckon with colonial legacies and the creative industries demand diverse perspectives, prospective designers need critical tools to challenge dominant narratives.This project positions design as advocacy—a way to surface systematically excluded stories and create lasting change in how we understand design history. The resulting work contributes directly to the UK's cultural sector, providing both pedagogical models and practical insights for more inclusive archival practices.
Impact & Legacy
This project serves as active pedagogical research:✸ For Participants: Critical skills, professional networks, portfolio work
✸ For Archives: Models for inclusive archival practice and evidence of engagement
✸ For Higher Education: Closed attainment gaps and positive student journeying
✸ For Design Research: Increased critical approaches and interests in academia
✸ For [the] Audience: Exposure to unique and contemporary interpretations of collections
The format, digital archive and exhibition are designed for replication. This is the first iteration of what we hope to be an annual collaboration with rotating cultural institutions.
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Participant Outcomes
UAL Camberwell College of Arts 2026
Research poster samples by participants (2026)
A pocket-sized archive zine series. A capture of a speculative project by participant (2026)
Visual index of packaging using African American icons. A capture of a speculative project by participant (2026)
A fictional anthropological dossier examining the institution of citizenship. A capture of a speculative project by participant (2026)
3D model of fictional ‘quotidian’ gallery. A capture of a speculative project by participant (2026)
Supported by
An Archive is a School is kindly supported by the University of the Arts London, the Social Purpose Innovation Fund, and the Community and Social Build Fund.Special thanks
Special thanks to Dr. Niki Wallace, Liz Evans, Lorella Amasanti, Emily Wood and the BA Graphic Design Department at UAL Camberwell College of Arts for the use of their studios. Thanks also to the BA Graphic Design Maker Space, Manuela Wyss, Cieszymir Bylina and Eddie Niles for their technical support. Thanks to The Institute of International Visual Arts (iniva) for use of the Stuart Hall Library archives.
In-kind support
Additional in-kind support was provided by the WritersMosaic Group with tickets to WritersMosaic presents: Meet the Pioneers, hosted by The British Library, and the Royal Designers for Industry, with tickets to Royal Designers Entanglement Sessions hosted by Pentagram.This website contains confidential, proprietary and/or privileged information. Any duplication, copying, distribution, dissemination, transmission, disclosure or use in any manner without the authorisation of Urjuan Toosy and Zarna Hart is strictly prohibited.
Zarna Hart (she/her) is a design practitioner, educator and curator exploring knowledge production and exchange through an anti-colonial lens, and a focus on post-colonial archival methods. Her work manifests through printed / digital ephemera, exhibitions and cultural programming, writing, and facilitation of workshops.