In 2009 the Planned Environment Therapy Trust Archive and Study Centre will celebrate its 20th year. Over the next six months we plan a series of mini-celebrations of the work and history of the Centre, largely online, and invite anyone with memories and recollections to share them. Visions of the future? Share those as well. Keep in touch with updates here at http://news.
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The Planned Environment Therapy Trust Archive and Study Centre is the only facility of its kind in the world devoted to therapeutic communities and environments.
It is
- a recognised archive within the United Kingdom; listed on the international UNESCO Archives Portal; sited in rural Gloucestershire; still growing;
It holds over
- 200 archive collections, 7000 books and monographs (many of them rare, unique and/or irreplaceable), 1500 discrete audio/video/oral history items;
It has
- a variety of museum objects, among which are a hand-adzed refectory table designed for Peper Harow therapeutic community; toys and blocks related to Dr. Margaret Lowenfeld; paintings by Mary Barnes, Elizabeth Collyer (who lived and worked at Withymead), and Dr. Marjorie Franklin; woodwork produced at Peredur.
It has associated onsite residential accommodation, and seminar and conference facilities, as part of the Planned Environment Therapy Trust's Barns Centre;
It is the seat of the Institute for the History and Work of Therapeutic Environments, a research and study centre of the University of Birmingham.
It is very much, well worth, celebrating.
