This exhibition narrates the story of Human Relations through the life of one man, Henry Riley. It frames the seven decades of Human Relations against key moments in one man’s life – and an ordinary life at that – and how those moments are reflected through seminal articles published in the journal. The Henry Riley story covers his birth, education, conditions for factory workers, family life and work, the feminization of work, juggling child care, as well as later life in the lead up to retirement.

There is a cyclical theme to this story. Kurt Lewin published in volume 1 issue 1 of Human Relations and, almost 70 years later, that same article is revisited and has become one of the most downloaded Human Relations articles of all time. Similarly, Henry Riley starts his working life in a chocolate factory and returns to it years later, but not necessarily to better conditions.

ARCH-LIVE:

EVENT LEADERS

Kerry Barner was born in Yorkshire, and although she’s lived in London for over 20 years she still classes herself as a proud northerner. She is a Publisher at SAGE Publishing and has worked there since 2005. In 2006, she started writing, mainly short stories, and in 2009, she was shortlisted for Wasafiri’s New Writer Prize. In 2014, she was longlisted for the Bath Short Story Award and in 2015, she was longlisted for the Fish Short Story prize. In November 2015, she received Highly Commended for the London Short Story award 2015. Her work has appeared in Brand literary magazine, Notes From The Underground, Anthropology and Humanism, Spilling Ink Review, The Bicycle Review, the Momaya Annual Review 2012, To Hull and Back Short Story Anthology 2014, Platform for Prose and Red Savina Review in which she received honourable mention in the Albert Camus Short Story competition. In 2011, she co-founded The Short Story competition and has run it solo since 2013: www.theshortstory.net. In 2017, she produced her second anthology: Best of the Short Story: Volume 2. She’s also a very proud mum!