Manchester Digital Music Archive

Manchester Digital Music Archive is a user-led online archive established to celebrate Greater Manchester music and its social history.

We are a small charity run by volunteers. We curate temporary physical exhibitions in pop-up spaces and well-known venues. We also host events; provide information and training; and celebrate unsung stories in Manchester music through community outreach work.

MISSION STATEMENT

• To celebrate Greater Manchester music, protect its heritage and promote awareness of its cultural importance.

AIMS

• To celebrate Greater Manchester music
• To raise awareness of the influence of Greater Manchester music and highlight unsung eras in its history
• To protect vulnerable collections pertaining to Greater Manchester music
• To record and document the memories of fans, artists and industry alike
• To facilitate exhibitions and events about Greater Manchester music that target as broad an audience as possible
• To develop a not-for-profit self-sustaining organisation to achieve the above
• To prevent the disappearance of artefacts by uncovering vulnerable collections and identifying an appropriate ‘home’ for them
• To approach (and encourage approaches from) people wishing to share their experiences of Greater Manchester music and document these oral histories in a variety of media
• To raise public awareness of such collections by organising events and exhibitions in a variety of easily accessible, ‘down-to-earth’ venues as well as in traditional exhibition spaces
• To provide an online resource/virtual archive that will map the evolution of Greater Manchester music from a chosen start point

CORE VALUES

• We will tell the story of Greater Manchester music with historical accuracy
• We will be the trusted ‘caretakers’ of the collective memory
• We will be a flexible and responsive organisation that listens to community opinion