Stuart Croft Archive
Stuart Croft’s archive comprises a variety of documentation and ephemera including notebooks, scripts, drawings and correspondence, as well as finished film works and moving image material on a variety of tape and disc formats.
Included within the physical archive is an extensive collection of material that had been boxed by Stuart himself. The artist had carefully maintained this living archive within his studio and the contents reflect the coalescence of his working life through his thoughts and his unique creative process as an artist. The depth of information contained within the archive provides a rich, valuable resource for artists, researchers, curators and scholars.
The Stuart Croft Foundation inherited the archive and one of our core aims is to ensure the preservation of Stuart’s legacy.
BFI National Archive
In October 2017, it was announced that Stuart’s films and working documents have placed within the BFI National Archive. In January 2018, the Foundation provided funds to employ a dedicated archivist, Fabian Macpherson, who joined the BFI Special Collections Team to formally appraise, catalogue and carry out basic preservation for both paper and digital documents within the archive. Fabian completed this work in September 2018 and the Stuart Croft archive catalogue is now available online via BFI Collections Search.
Read more about how the foundation has been developing the archive on our news section.
Founded in 1935, the BFI National Archive develops, cares for, and interprets one of the largest and most important collections of film and television in the world, that illustrates the art, history and impact of film. The BFI is an international leader in film preservation and the guardian of Britain’s unparalleled film and television screen heritage. The BFI’s artist moving image collection includes close to one and a half thousand titles, and it traces the development and changing nature of the experimental practice, going from avant-garde early cinema and underground film to conceptual video art and contemporary artist film.
The BFI’s aims compliment those of the Stuart Croft Foundation, namely, to: encourage the development of the moving image; promote education about the moving image; promote access to and appreciation of the widest possible range of British and world cinema; and, establish, care for and develop collections reflecting the moving image history and heritage of the United Kingdom. State of the art facilities will ensure the preservation and conservation of both Stuart Croft’s moving image and paper materials at the BFI.
Access and permissions
The Stuart Croft Foundation is committed to promoting public access and scholarly research into Stuart’s archive.
To access the Stuart Croft archive catalogue, visit the BFI Collections Search webpage.
Copyright of the archive remains with the Stuart Croft Foundation.
For all image and licensing enquiries, visit the Stuart Croft page on the Artimage website.