Cheshire Archives: a story shared - 20,000 Women Zine Project
Cheshire Archives are seeking artists to develop and delivery a series of collaborative zine-making workshops with communities across Cheshire as part of the 20,000 Women Project — a major creative engagement programme running throughout 2026.
Job Description
Artists working in a range of forms are welcome - including print, sound, textiles, photography, collage, and digital media - who are passionate about storytelling, community engagement, and amplifying underrepresented voices.
Background information
Construction of the new Cheshire Archives centres in Chester and Crewe is well underway, and they are on track for opening in Autumn 2026.
As part of the activity plan, artist Cath Campbell, is leading a creative engagement programme, to connect a larger and more diverse audience with archives.
The Creative Engagement Programme:
The Creative Engagement Programme aims to uncover and celebrate historically underrepresented women\'s stories from the archives. This will include temporary public artworks, educational resources and a large-scale engagement project, the 20,000 Women Zine Project, which aims to collect and preserve stories of 20,000 women and girls living in Cheshire today.
The Cheshire Archive: A story shared - 20,000 Women Zine Project
For the 20,000 Women Project, artists will work with community groups, schools, libraries, and local organisations across Cheshire to co-create zines. The resulting zines will become part of the Cheshire Archives, preserved and displayed in both new centres and forming a permanent living collection of women\'s voices from 2026.
Artists Fee £3000
Artists will be paid a day rate of £300 (or equivalent half day fees)
The contract will include:
1 day induction and training
1 day preparation
7 days to include a mix of delivery of face to face workshops, training sessions, development of online or self-led resources
- Ability to travel independently within Cheshire
- Public liability insurance
- Registered for own tax/self-employed
- Experience in participatory arts, education, or community engagement
- Be flexible to respond to a variety of requests for workshops at different times and days - every attempt to accommodate for each artist\'s availability will be made
Cheshire Archives particularly welcomes applications from women, non-binary artists, and those from Black, Asian, LGBTQ+, disabled and working-class backgrounds, whose voices are often underrepresented in the arts and archives.
Job Responsibilities
Artist Roles and Responsibilities
The resulting from workshops zines will be collected and returned to the Archives, with permission, for storage and display in both centres.
Within the role there will be opportunities for artists to develop and deliver training workshops, to design activities and templates for making zines independently and also to deliver online activities.
Artists will need to be organised, excellent communicators, self-sufficient and experienced at working in a variety of settings, with a wide range of people.
The Archive project wants to ensure that workshops are accessible and inclusive, reducing barriers for potential participants.
The project is interested in hearing from artists with experience of working with specific user groups or marginalised communities. It will aim to partner artists with appropriate groups to best support everyone\'s skills and requirements.
Job Information
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Job Title
Cheshire Archives: a story shared - 20,000 Women Zine Project
Company Name
Cheshire West & Cheshire Council
