November 2023 Awards in Preservation & Access

Congratulations to the following institutions! Eighteen awards were made for Preservation & Access Cultural and Community Resilience projects, nine awards were made for Preservation & Access Education and Training projects, and seven awards were made for Preservation & Access Research and Development projects.

CULTURAL AND COMMUNITY RESILIENCE

Chinese Culture Foundation of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA - Award: $118,019

Planning efforts to establish an inventory of the intangible cultural resources of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Community input would guide a documentation strategy and the creation of training and other materials to build a digital collection in the future.

City of Tacoma, Tacoma, WA - Award: $ 145,987

The development of a digital primary source set and the digitization of select collections at Tacoma Public Library, as well as intergenerational interviews from the Tacoma, Washington, community focused on climate change.

CSU Fullerton Auxiliary Services Corporation - Award: $ 132,462

The recording of 30 oral history interviews in English and Spanish that document the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Latinx community in the Richman neighborhood of California. The project would translate, transcribe, and index interviews and make them available online and host community events to share the deliverables.

Diverse and Resilient, Inc., Milwaukee, WI - Award: $149,969

The recording of 15 new oral histories and updating of 11 existing oral histories about the Black LGBTQ+ experience in Milwaukee, including discussions of both the HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 pandemics, and the development of a documentary website to present the recordings.

George Mason University, Fairfax, VA - Award: $148,022

The recovery of documentation and the organization of in-person gatherings to collect oral histories associated with the history of racial violence in Forsyth County, Georgia. The oral histories would be made available online via a portal, along with an interactive map and educational materials.

Los Angeles Poverty Department, Los Angeles, CA - Award: $150,000

The collection of oral histories, photographs, and objects to create a digital and physical archive of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Los Angeles’s Skid Row community, especially the unhoused and housing insecure.

Montana State University, Bozeman, MT - Award: $150,000

The collection and curation of 25 oral histories from Apsáalooke elders and tribal members who hold knowledge about the development and governance of a coal economy on the Crow Indian Reservation.

National Public Housing Museum, Chicago, IL - Award: $ 149,630

The development of a public-facing archive of oral histories from current and former residents of public housing by updating the National Public Housing Museum’s oral history handbook, updating educational modules and training public housing residents as interviewers, and producing at least 60 new oral histories.

Pueblo of Isleta, Isleta, NM - Award: $149,998

Facilitating a series of intergenerational, community-led workshops on Pueblo of Isleta cultural heritage craftwork that is under threat of loss from the impact of COVID-19. The project would create a mixed and multimedia archival collection, language recordings, craft curricula, and instruction manuals.

Regents of the University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - Award: $149,851

The collection of 40 photovoice oral history interviews and archival materials documenting elderly Asian American community members’ experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project would train community interviewers and deliver a five-minute documentary video, an open-access digital archive, and academic publications.

Regents of the University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - Award: $ 150,000

The creation of a StoryMap to document the history of the hitch fish and its cultural significance to the Tribal peoples of the Clear Lake region of California.

Regents of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN - Award: $143,386

The collection of 25 oral histories and the creation of a StoryMap with relevant cultural heritage sites for the Gullah/Geechee Alkebulan Archive.

Southwest Folklife Alliance, Inc., Tucson, AZ - Award: $149,698

Recording 20 oral history interviews to document the impacts of and adaptations to climate change on cultural heritage and folklife in two desert regions of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.

True Kids 1, Taos, NM - Award: $149,084

Training students, ages 14 to 20, to conduct and record 45 video oral history interviews with elders in Taos, New Mexico.

Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, New York, NY - Award: $ 138,400

The creation of four long-form oral history interviews from each of the four counties in Rio Grande Valley, Texas, conducted by ENTRE, a film center and regional archive in the area.

University of Illinois, Champaign, IL - Award: $137,780

The collection of 20 oral histories with African American elders and first responders, and the facilitation of three community archive creation events, to document participants’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The oral histories and digitized objects would be made available online via the University of Illinois Library.

University of Puerto Rico, Arecibo Campus, Arecibo, PR - Award: $149,332

The collection of 10 oral histories as well as other documentation about the cultural heritage of Islote, Puerto Rico, a small and historical fishing village on the north coast endangered by climate change.

Wichita State University, Wichita, KS - Award: $150,000

The recording of 10 oral history interviews detailing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Spanish-speaking and Indigenous language-speaking communities in Kansas. The project would transcribe and translate the oral histories and make them available online in addition to hosting team and community workshops, producing teaching materials, and creating presentations and publications to share findings.

PRESERVATION AND ACCESS EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Association of Moving Image Archivists, Hollywood, CA - Award: $ 349,610

A continuing education program in preservation of audiovisual collections for approximately 150 Tribal cultural stewards that would include five regional workshops, the development of inventories and preservation plans for site partners, and the creation of a new module on managing digital AV collections.

Balboa Art Conservation Center, San Diego, CA - Award: $ 345,224

Development of the California Inclusive Preservation Program (CIPP), through which Balboa Art Conservation Center would provide support for stewards of cultural heritage in the state, focusing on rural, BIPOC, and veteran collections. The program would include virtual and in-person workshops and foster a network of trainees to act as preservation leaders on a local level.

Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, Philadelphia, PA - Award: $ 349,400

The continuation and broadening of preservation field services programs including preservation planning, the Regional Heritage Stewardship Program, a sustainability cohort, education programs, and an apprenticeship focused on preventive conservation.

Foundation for Advancement in Conservation, Washington, DC - Award: $ 341,567

The development and presentation of five technical skills workshops, delivered in person, and four outreach workshops, delivered in a hybrid format, for conservators and allied collection professionals.

New York University, New York, NY - Award: $ 150,000 outright, $150,000 match

Student stipends, summer internship and shadowing opportunities, and adjunct faculty and guest lecturers for the conservation graduate program at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts.

Northeast Document Conservation Center, Inc., Andover, MA - Award: $ 350,000

The continuation and expansion of field service activities, including preservation assessments, emergency assistance, educational workshops and webinars, and writing and updating educational publications.

South Asian American Digital Archive, NFP, Philadelphia, PA - Award: $ 350,000

Twelve summer community archives fellowships for master’s students, in which participants would receive mentorship while conducting oral histories and collecting South Asian American community materials and developing public programming to share their projects.

Texas After Violence Project, Austin, TX - Award: $ 336,758

The creation of an open access curriculum and toolkit teaching community-centered oral history and archives practices and the expansion of a fellowship program by recruiting nine mentors and developing three webinars and workshops.

Utah Division of Arts and Museums, Salt Lake City, UT - Award: $ 350,000

A three-year project to further develop the Utah Collections Preservation Network (UCPN), which would support the state’s cultural heritage caretakers in museums, libraries, archives, and communities through delivery of webinars and workshops on collection care; training new members of the Collection Preservation Team (CPT), a cohort of community experts throughout the state; and completion of preservation assessments and discrete collection care projects in Utah’s small cultural heritage organizations.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Foundation for Ethical Stewardship of Cultural Heritage, Nashville, TN - Award: $ 349,315

Establishment of a standard nomenclature and protocol for undertaking provenance research on Mediterranean antiquities, piloting of the protocol in four university test cases, and creation of a website with compiled resources and a listserv for individuals doing provenance research on Mediterranean antiquities.

Midwest Art Conservation Center, Inc., Minneapolis, MN - Award: $ 213,134

A Tier II project to develop tools for remote risk assessment and emergency planning for public art collections.

Northeast Document Conservation Center, Inc., Andover, MA - Award: $ 349,009

A Tier II project to develop open-source software and workflows to reformat audio recordings on DAT tapes according to preservation standards.

Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY - Award: $ 315,854

A Tier II project to investigate the mechanical stability of 3D-printed materials used for the storage, transport, display, and conservation treatment of heritage objects.

Stanford University, Stanford, CA - Award: $ 99,243

A Tier I project to develop guidelines for preserving and providing access to the content of early scholarly websites in a sustainable manner.

University of North Texas, Denton, TX - Award: $ 97,484

A Tier I project to survey the capacity and needs of the archives and libraries of more than 500 Minority Serving Institutions located across the United States.

University of Maine, Orono, Orono, ME - Award: $99,947

A Tier I project to create a digital lexicon of Wabanaki basketry to be used as a model for other institutions and collections of Wabanaki material culture.