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Archive

Archive

The documentation infrastructure for artists, curators, institutions, and collections the art world has needed for

decades — and never built.

The documentation infrastructure for artists, curators, institutions, and collections the art world has needed for

decades — and never built.

A verified, research-led knowledge platform for artists, curators, collectives, institutions, and collections from the Global South, African diaspora, and queer practice. Not a directory. Not a marketplace. Infrastructure — built to last.

A verified, research-led knowledge platform for artists, curators, collectives, institutions, and collections from the Global South; in the diaspora; and queer practice. Infrastructure , Built to last.

A verified, research-led knowledge platform for artists, curators, collectives, institutions, and collections from the Global South, African diaspora, and queer practice. Not a directory. Not a marketplace. Infrastructure — built to last.

Join the research process →

Join the research process →

WHAT IS THIS →

WHAT IS THIS →

Partner or fund this work →

Partner or fund this work →

  • ARCHIVE : ARTISTS · CURATORS · INSTITUTIONS · COLLECTIONS GLOBAL SOUTH · DIASPORA CREATIVES · RESEARCH PHASE ACTIVE [2026] · BASEL, CH · DIRECTED BY DILLON JERRY MUGUME

    ARCHIVE : ARTISTS · CURATORS · INSTITUTIONS · COLLECTIONS GLOBAL SOUTH · DIASPORA CREATIVES · RESEARCH PHASE ACTIVE [2026] · BASEL, CH · DIRECTED BY DILLON JERRY MUGUME

O1 — WHY THIS ARCHIVE HAS TO EXIST

Talent is global.
Visibility is not.

Talent is global.
Visibility is not.

Current documentation systems are fragmented, extractive, and structurally biased toward artists who are already visible. Institutions struggle to discover work they cannot find. Artists with twenty-year practices have no verified profile anywhere that a curator, collector, or researcher can trust.

Lending is opaque. Collections, including major corporate, hospitality, and private holdings, are entirely undiscoverable. Representation in existing databases is uneven in ways that replicate the same exclusions the art world has always made.

This is not a complaint. It is a design brief. The TIHC Archive addresses all of it through a verified system that connects data, people, and the movement of artworks across borders and institutions.

ZERO
Verified

zero
verified

ZERO
Verified

platforms built specifically for artists from the Global South and African diaspora to be found, verified, and understood in full context — globally

platforms built specifically for artists from the Global South and African diaspora to be found, verified, and understood in full context — globally

Weeks
lost

Weeks
lost

curators and cultural producers worldwide report spending weeks tracing an artist they could have found in minutes if adequate documentation existed

curators and cultural producers worldwide report spending weeks tracing an artist they could have found in minutes if adequate documentation existed

Static
Collections

Static
Collections

Static
Collections

Significant works from under-represented communities are held in private & corporate collections, invisible to the curators and institutions who would bring them into the global conversation.

Significant works from under-represented communities are held in private & corporate collections, invisible to the curators and institutions who would bring them into the global conversation.

O2 — Why we are listening before building anything

Most platforms are built for communities.

This one is being designed with them.

Most platforms are built for communities.

This one is being designed with them.

Every archive encodes assumptions about who is worth documenting, what data matters, and how people should be found. Those assumptions, if not interrogated before a single line of code is written, replicate the same failures the art world has always made.


We are in the research phase. This means we are listening first. Asking artists what they actually need from a platform like this. Asking curators what tools fail them and why. Asking institutions what they cannot find. Asking collections what would make visibility worth the risk.


That listening shapes the profile structure, the search logic, the intake process, and the access model. It is not a delay. It is the only methodology that produces infrastructure that actually serves its purpose.

Every archive encodes assumptions about who is worth documenting, what data matters, and how people should be found. Those assumptions, if not interrogated before a single line of code is written, replicate the same failures the art world has always made.


We are in the research phase. This means we are listening first. Asking artists what they actually need from a platform like this. Asking curators what tools fail them and why. Asking institutions what they cannot find. Asking collections what would make visibility worth the risk.


That listening shapes the profile structure, the search logic, the intake process, and the access model. It is not a delay. It is the only methodology that produces infrastructure that actually serves its purpose.

The people this archive is built for will recognise themselves in it because they built it. That is what distinguishes this from every existing system. ''Dillon Jerry Mugume''

O3 — WHAT THE ARCHIVE WILL HOLD

Artist & collective profiles

Practice, exhibition history, residencies, collections held - In. Verified. Cross-referenced.


Dual-nationality profiling. Media documentation. Not a bio, but a full research record that moves with the artist's practice over time.

Practice, exhibition history, residencies, collections held - In. Verified. Cross-referenced.


Dual-nationality profiling. Media documentation. Not a bio, but a full research record that moves with the artist's practice over time.

IN RESEARCH

IN RESEARCH

Curator & researcher profiles

Geographic focus, institutional affiliations, thematic expertise, exhibition history.


A discovery tool in both directions for artists seeking to be found and for institutions seeking the right curatorial voice for their programme.

Geographic focus, institutional affiliations, thematic expertise, exhibition history.


A discovery tool in both directions for artists seeking to be found and for institutions seeking the right curatorial voice for their programme.

IN RESEARCH

IN RESEARCH

Institution profiles

Museums, galleries, Kunsthalles, foundations, residency programmes, universities.


Programme history, collection holdings, lending availability, geographic and thematic focus. What they hold. What they are actively seeking.

Museums, galleries, Kunsthalles, foundations, residency programmes, universities.


Programme history, collection holdings, lending availability, geographic and thematic focus. What they hold. What they are actively seeking.

IN RESEARCH

IN RESEARCH

Cultural asset partners

Private, corporate, hospitality, and foundation collections worldwide.


Including holdings in banks, hotels, institutional vaults. Works in storage surfaced for the first time. Lending status documented. Circulation made possible.

Private, corporate, hospitality, and foundation collections worldwide.


Including holdings in banks, hotels, institutional vaults. Works in storage surfaced for the first time. Lending status documented. Circulation made possible.

IN RESEARCH

IN RESEARCH

Oral histories & recorded conversations

Recorded conversations. Artists speaking in their own words. Practice documented in full context.


An archive inside the archive. Long-form documentation of communities, movements, and individual practices that no other platform is capturing.

Recorded conversations. Artists speaking in their own words. Practice documented in full context.


An archive inside the archive. Long-form documentation of communities, movements, and individual practices that no other platform is capturing.

IN DESIGN

IN DESIGN

African scripts, architecture & material practice

Alphabets, symbolic systems, indigenous spatial forms, textile and material cultural practices.


The knowledge infrastructure that contextualises everything else. The layer that makes the TIHC Archive unlike any existing system.

Alphabets, symbolic systems, indigenous spatial forms, textile and material cultural practices.


The knowledge infrastructure that contextualises everything else. The layer that makes the TIHC Archive unlike any existing system.

IN DESIGN

IN DESIGN

Nothing is published. Everything is in active research. We are building carefully, with the people it is for.

Nothing is published. Everything is in

active research. We are building

carefully, with the people it is for.

O4 — THIS IS THE MOMENT TO BE INVOLVED

Your input now shapes the structure of everything

that follows. The research phase is the only moment

where that is true.

Your input now shapes

the structure of

everything

that follows. The

research phase is the

only moment

where that is true.

For artists & creatives

Your practice deserves more than an Instagram bio.


Five minutes. Your answers directly shape how artists like you are found, verified, and represented. We are not collecting profiles yet. We are designing the system with you.

Your practice deserves more than an Instagram bio.


Five minutes. Your answers directly shape how artists like you are found, verified, and represented. We are not collecting profiles yet. We are designing the system with you.

Contribute as a curator →

Contribute as a curator →

For curators & researchers

You know who's missing. Help us find them.


What tools fail you? What information do you need that doesn't exist anywhere? Your research shapes how the platform is structured the search logic, the data fields, the access model.

You know who's missing. Help us find them.


What tools fail you? What information do you need that doesn't exist anywhere? Your research shapes how the platform is structured the search logic, the data fields, the access model.

Contribute as a curator →

For Institutions

The work your programme is looking for, we can help you find it.


Museums, galleries, Kunsthalles, foundations, residencies, and universities. A research conversation, not a sign-up form. Tell us where current systems fail your institution.

The work your programme is looking for, we can help you find it.


Museums, galleries, Kunsthalles, foundations, residencies, and universities. A research conversation, not a sign-up form. Tell us where current systems fail your institution.

Collaborate →

For Collections

Works in storage are invisible globally. Make yours discoverable.


Private, corporate, hospitality, and foundation holdings worldwide. Visibility creates circulation. Opacity does not. Nothing is published without explicit agreement.

Works in storage are invisible globally. Make yours discoverable.


Private, corporate, hospitality, and foundation holdings worldwide. Visibility creates circulation. Opacity does not. Nothing is published without explicit agreement.

Register →

For Contributors

Expertise and time matter as much as money


For individual Researchers, writers, photographers, translators, developers, and educators. If you have domain knowledge and capacity, there is a meaningful role for you in building this.

Expertise and time matter as much as money


For individual Researchers, writers, photographers, translators, developers, and educators. If you have domain knowledge and capacity, there is a meaningful role for you in building this.

Offer expertise →

Press & Media

Cover this while it is being built. Not after.


The research phase is the most interesting moment — when the decisions that will shape everything are still being made. Join the press list now. The launch announcement goes to you first.

Cover this while it is being built. Not after.


The research phase is the most interesting moment — when the decisions that will shape everything are still being made. Join the press list now. The launch announcement goes to you first.

Press inquiry →

05 — FUND THE INFRASTRUCTURE

05 — FUND THE INFRASTRUCTURE

This is the infrastructure that makes equitable culture possible.

This is the infrastructure that makes equitable culture possible.

The TIHC Archive requires sustained, principled partnership to be built with the rigour it demands. We are actively seeking foundations, cultural ministries, and institutional funders whose mandate aligns with equitable documentation, cultural access, and knowledge sovereignty. Early partnership is formative, not honorary.

SUPPORTING PARTNER

CHF 5,000+

CHF 5,000+

Annual contribution


  • Standard Recognition: Logo placement in the "Sponsors" section of the TIHC Archive landing page.


  • Annual Review: Mention in the digital "State of the Archive" publication.


  • Direct Impact: Funds 1 year of server maintenance/ethical storage for a specific community collection.





EXPRESS INTEREST →

Institutional Partner

CHF 20,000+

CHF 20,000+

Activation & Research


. Everything in Supporting +


  • Case Study Integration: A featured digital entry on how your organization’s assets contribute to the Hybrid Cultures discourse.


  • Archive Credits: Access to the TIHC submission protocol for archiving up to 10 specific organizational assets (e.g., recorded talks or digital papers).


  • Research Acknowledgement: Listed as a primary supporter on all research papers stemming from the Archive for that year.


DISCUSS PARTNERSHIP →

Lead Research Partner

CHF 50,000+

CHF 50,000+

Stewardship & Systemic Support


  • Principal Recognition: "Institutional Partner" designation on the physical/mobile library units and all digital entry points.


  • Archival Stewardship: Priority status for the ingestion of larger data sets or sensitive community records into the TIHC ethical infrastructure.


  • Legacy Branding: Permanent "Founded with Support from [Your Organization]" credit on a specific research cycle or archival node.




DISCUSS PARTNERSHIP →

T

Not every partnership is financial.

We are also building through expertise, infrastructure, and time. If your organisation

can contribute in any of these areas, we want to hear from you.

PHOTOGRAPHY.

TRANSLATION

RESEARCH CAPACITY

DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE

EVENT HOSTING

LEGAL & COMPLIANCE

PROPOSE IN-KIND →

T

All partnership conversations are direct with the Archive programme director. No intermediary. Response within five working days.

EMAIL →

SUPPORT TIHC →