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.
Access
This event will take place in the Learning Studio at Henry Moore Institute. This is on the third floor of the building, with lift access.
The main entrance to Henry Moore Institute faces onto Victoria Gardens, and requires walking up a set of hand-railed steps.
The main entrance has a set of double automatic doors, which open inwards.
A further set of shallow steps inside the building, with a hand rail, lead up to the shop and welcome desk.
There is an accessible lift entrance to the Institute from Cookridge Street, which opens into our ground floor shop and welcome desk.
The doors to the lift provide an opening of 100cm, with the platform dimensions of the lift 110cm wide by 148cm deep.
Please press the illuminated green button inside the lift lobby to open the lift door.
The Learning Studio has toilets directly linked to the room. These are private toilets, comprising three gender-neutral superloos (self-contained cubicles with a toilet and sink), one of which is fully accessible
For more information about access and getting to the Institute can be found at here
About the speakers
Aimee Harrison
Aimee Harrison (she/her) is the Co-Curator of Liverpool Biennial 2027. She has worked at Liverpool Biennial since 2019 as Curator of Learning, producing collaborative projects with international artists as well as designing and delivering an extensive Learning Programme. Prior to the Biennial she was Children and Young People’s Producer at Heart of Glass, St Helens and previously worked at FACT Liverpool as Learning Coordinator. Harrison has produced many community projects throughout her career, working extensively with children and young people, d/Deaf and disabled people, older adults, migrant communities and people within the criminal justice system.
Claye Bowler
Claye Bowler (he/him) is an artist born in Derby and living in Yorkshire. Based on his experience working in museum collection management, Bowler’s work often incorporates, yet questions, the ethics, administration and aesthetics of museum collecting. Bowler uses sculptural practices to highlight stories that are not historically collected through institutional means, often working with narratives of queerness and disability.
Recent solo exhibitions include: Dig Me a Grave, Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2025), Top, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (2022). His work is held in public collections: Arts Council Collection, Wellcome Collection, Otherness Archive, and Leeds Art Gallery.