About the Archives
Learn more about the Archives Project below.
Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre’s Archives are an educational resource created to provide access to our permanent Archival collection for research, access to cultural heritage, and the preservation of vulnerable media.
* For more information on the intended use of this resource, please see our Copyright Policy.
Digitizing 45+ Years of Contemporary Art History
As one of the longest-running artist-run centres in the country, Modern Fuel has 45+ years of rich and valuable content in our archival collection stored at the Queen’s University Archives, and Modern Fuel’s office.
In honor of the organization’s 45th anniversary, and through the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Modern Fuel began the digitization of our archival material to preserve our deteriorating media and provide access to never-before-seen records through an online database.
This project intends to preserve Canadian contemporary art history – enabling artists, researchers, writers, and curators to easily access archival material, and adding the experimental and alternative practices of hundreds of artists to the national canon.
Preservation of Vulnerable Media
Over the years, Modern Fuel has documented exhibitions, performances, and installations using various technologies of the time, leading to archives stored on outdated media like micro-caches, tapes, and floppy disks.
This project safeguards this content from physical loss, including misplacement, hardware corruption, equipment limitations, and unforeseen disasters such as floods or fires.
Access to Cultural Heritage
Heritage preservation is essential for maintaining cultural identity and ensuring the legacy of past generations endures. Digitizing Modern Fuel’s archives preserves our cultural history, strengthens our community’s artistic roots and allows materials to be accessed by new audiences, within new time frames and socio-political contexts.
This project addresses the need to preserve and document the histories of alternative art practices in Canada, with the caveat that any history will be partial, selective, and subjective.
Explore by Decade
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
Thank you to our funders.
Thank you to the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Kingston, Kingston Arts Council, and Ontario Trillium Foundation for their generous funding. We are incredibly grateful for the support that has made this project possible.
We would also like to thank our partners at the Queen’s University Archives and the Vulnerable Media Lab for their collaboration in digitizing and storing our archival media.
