This is now a record of events that took place as part of ‘Reimagining Human Relations in Our Time’, a festival celebrating 70 years of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, which took place in October 2017. At the heart of the festival was the opening up of the Institute’s archive as it had been intricately and delicately catalogued at the Wellcome Library. These two things coinciding were the cause for celebration in particular their role in tackling the many societal challenges we face today: an environment at tipping point, ageing and social care, displaced people and populations, crises in faith, identity and leadership, our wellbeing at work.

We have found ourselves energised by the four days, by our interactions with a global community, by braving and experimenting much further with the integration of the arts with social science. In temporarily reorganising ourselves in service of that community we have also learned a huge amount about ourselves and the place the Tavistock Institute has in going forward to address some of the questions we set out for ourselves going forward in the next 70 years.