Positive Steps houses the biggest and most authoritative collection of primary source material on Black artists who have contributed to the cultural landscape of England from the 19th Century onwards. Positive Steps was formed in 1990 by Leon Robinson as a vehicle for exploring, archiving, interpreting and educating intergenerational audiences about the Black experience in British history, focusing particularly but not exclusively on arts and culture, especially theatre, as this provided an interesting and accessible window to the lived experiences of people through the times. Leon is a professionally trained dancer, actor and director of several decades experience and was inspired to start collecting and archiving heritage materials on the Black presence in the UK after Sammy Davis Junior died in 1990 and Leon felt he didn’t want anymore great black artists to pass away without being acknowledge for the great work they’ve done. Ensuring we can all witness and see the major contributions these artists have made to the British Theatrical entertainment and cultural scene.
Positive Steps purposes and aims are to: – Encourage young people to not only experience archiving, but to deepen their engagement with archival collections; – To bring archives to life for new generations of audiences by using the collections to introduce young people to their heritage.
The company's motto is 'Reworking the past to create the future', which informs the approach we take to heritage, not just as monolithic historical material, but as part of the living reality of British history, hence calling our collection a ’living archive“ and extending the remit of the company to be a performance production company. This approach allows the company to offer, especially the younger generation, an opportunity to bring the heritage from the past into today and by using relevant technologies, indeed, into the future.
Positive Steps works with young people to draw on exciting time signatures and references - ideas and connections triggered by different items in its archive collections - as hooks to identify and pay homage to the past in order to enrich their future. As well as being a reference point for historical richness, Positive Steps also explores and documents the fertile ground of cultural expression among young people, and works with them to develop theatre and media productions.
Positive Steps is always seeking to develop mechanisms for the presentation of our unique archival collections, in order to highlight this hidden legacy and to engage with new audiences and artists in as many fresh and exciting ways as possible.