Short Summary

Welcome!

   Hooray! We've reached the target! BUT...  
    please keep the donations coming and we'll use them to: 
    - create more pages on the Inter-Action listing on Unfinished Histories, giving details                          of Dogg’s Troupe, TOC (The Other Company), Father Xmas Union, the Community Media Van and so many more,                  
   - create pages sharing the oral histories we've recorded with Inter-Action members or supporters including Harriet Powell, Celia Greenwood, even Michael Heseltine! - and record more interviews,
   - organise events sharing the wealth of archive material  we have already digitised and digitise  more, especially material in older, hard-to-access formats,
  - run a community open day to share archive materials at the archive's current,                                    temporary home in Wembley,
   - train volunteers in archive skills,
  and much more....  Please donate today!!

Inter-Action was perhaps the most influential arts, education and community development charity to emerge in post-war Britain. From the late 1960s onwards it ran dozens of projects which changed lives - both of the people and communities which it worked with and of the hundreds of people who worked so energetically as part of its teams. City Farms, Weekend Arts College, the participatory theatre company Dogg's Troupe and the Almost Free Theatre, which hosted the first Women's Theatre Festival and the first Gay Theatre Festival in Britain, are just a few of its radical initiatives which have left their mark. Inter-Action was founded in 1968 and directed thereafter by ED Berman MBE. 

This campaign will raise funds to secure the rescue and to preserve the archive of Inter-Action for future generations. 

David Powell, who helped run the charity for three decades, is leading this campaign with Unfinished Histories, the charity which records the histories of alternative theatre and related projects from the 1960s onwards and which has worked tirelessly to hold Inter-Action's story together.

The amazing story of Inter-Action has barely been told. Now we have the opportunity to put its records - photographs, video and films, stories, publications and a treasure trove showing what it did and how it worked - into the hands of the London Metropolitan Archives. This material was collected over more than thirty years: projects on the streets, in housing estates, in inner city neighbourhoods across the UK and internationally. For the first time, researchers, artists, social historians and others will be able to access and use this rare collection of material. The records, in paper and a variety of media, will be gifted to the LMA by ED Berman MBE and Inter-Action.

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What We Need & What You Get

We need to raise a minimum of £6,000 by the end of March 2025. This will enable Unfinished Histories to organise the archive and get it safely into the hands of the London Archives.

This money will all go directly to Unfinished Histories, a registered charity, ring-fenced for this project. If we don't raise enough, we'll do what we can with the funds in hand. If we raise more than £6,000, the extra funds will be used to investigate in more detail the contents of the archive and how best to open it up to new generations. 

All donors over £20, unless they choose otherwise, will be listed on the Special Thanks page (see Perk 1)

The Impact

I'm directing this request for support in the first instance towards the people who were part of the Inter-Action project - the people who joined us to try and make a difference, people who worked and often lived together, project workers, team members, summer volunteers, people who worked with the theatre companies on stage and backstage, City Farmers, Kentish Towners and many others. It's your story. Please help!

We're asking for support and advice too, from as many family,  friends and fellow travellers as recognise the importance of this archive and its place in continuing to help make the world a slightly better place. 

Other Ways You Can Help

Please spread the word to people who might be interested, and to people who we might no longer be in touch with. Please let us know of there is anything you'd like to add to the Inter-Action archive, when it's safely docked at the London Archives.

Please use any medium that's ethical, safe and comfortable, including the Indiegogo share tools!