RSArchive 15 April 2026

Drawing similarities

Museums and archives do more than preserve the past. At their best, they ignite conversations between generations, reimagining memories and mapping the futures we choose to build

A vintage, detailed map of an urban area with streets, buildings, and open spaces outlined in red and yellow, capturing a historical city layout where chimney sweeps once navigated the rooftops.

Abby Matthews

RSA Senior Archivist

reading time: Three minutes

Arts and society Cities Communities Heritage

Summary

RSA Senior Archivist Abby Matthews explores how archives and heritage collections can foster dialogue across generations, explaining how collections can spark shared reflection, strengthen communities and preserve collective memory. Specifically, she showcases the learnings that can be gathered through historic materials and contemporary art by examining Tannaz Oroumchi’s reimagined maps of London alongside the 1799 cartography of Richard Horwood.

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^{Main image: Richard Horwood’s 1799 Map of London}

It’s not uncommon for people to develop an interest in archives and heritage collections later in life, often when the pressures of work and childcare demands ease, and a more reflective phase emerges. But the reality is that museums and archives are uniquely placed to speak to people across generations. After all, a core reason many collections are established is to record the decisions, actions and outputs of one generation for the benefit of the next.

Dialogue that connects

Much work is being carried out across the sector to highlight this – from M&S’s Sparking Memories Intergenerational Project to the Tate’s Facilitating Intergenerational Dialogue, to local initiatives such as the Museum of Chelmsford’s Intergenerational Collections Project.

All share the goal of identifying heritage and art collections that spark intergenerational conversations and themes of commonality. This work is a powerful means of building trust and embedding placemaking into communities. But it also allows for the co-creation of exhibitions, developing collections that are relevant to all, and ensuring the preservation of collective memory as we hurtle forwards at increasing speed.

Here at the RSA, we’ve been thinking about how we can speak to this issue within the context of what is essentially an institutional collection. While the recording of oral histories in the form of intergenerational conversations between our Fellows is something we’re keen to explore, another approach is to facilitate more abstract conversations between our historic collections and the contemporary artworks we exhibit. Recently, House Curation Officer Laure Barthelemy has been working with artists to explore the dialogue between their contemporary practice and our historic archive.

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A metropolis reimagined

Tannaz Oroumchi, whose beautiful drawings were recently displayed in the RSA’s Muse cocktail bar, is an architect and artist who reimagines the London cityscape by redrawing London maps. The work invites us to rethink our surroundings, and question what architecture could look like if it were built on trust and care, allowing us to feel connected to the spaces and people around us.

These works speak in dialogue with a different London, one that was documented as it grew by cartographer Richard Horwood in 1799. His maps are held in the RSA archive and tell the story of the way in which people of that generation interacted and were connected – a story that is ever-adapting.

Abstract black and white illustration resembling archive city maps, with overlapping geometric shapes, lines, and shaded areas, creating a complex and layered urban pattern. — ***Tannaz Oroumchi’s London Black, hand drawn, ink on architectural film***

A new direction

Oroumchi’s maps echo many of the same locations depicted in Horwood’s cartography, namely the sinewy streets of central London. Maps are the ultimate representation of a city’s timeline, as the fact holders of a specific architecture and streetscape. Oroumchi takes this legacy to construct a further layer of interpretation, by transforming these beautiful objects and tools into an exploratory terrain for our imagination.

She overlays existing architecture with a future-focused question – what will the streets of our future generations look like, and what city should we be building for those next inhabitants?

Conversations need not always be overt, contrived or even harmonious. But, with careful curation, the work we showcase at RSA House can help elicit ideas and spark dialogue that bridges generational divides and keeps alive conversations between Fellows past and present.

View more of Tannaz Oroumchi’s work here and learn more about Richard Horwood’s maps here.