Grant from NEH will support vital archiving initiatives across the country
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded a $192,000 grant to the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation (MIAP) Program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. The grant will support MIAP students pursuing internships in libraries, archives, museums, and heritage organizations around the country.
“Audiovisual records are critical to scholars, teachers, and researchers in every discipline, particularly in the humanities,” says Dan Streible, Director of the NYU MIAP Program. “We can’t imagine fully understanding, for example, the history of the nation in the past century without access to film and television recordings of everything from social movements to domestic life.” He adds that “saving such recordings and making them accessible in the digital era, require the special skills our students acquire. We’re grateful the NEH recognizes the need for training and deploying archivists, particularly those graduating from NYU MIAP. This grant will enable our students to apply their education to the care of important collections throughout the United States.”
In addition to vulnerable analog materials -- film, videotapes, and optical disks -- digital media are also at constant risk of degradation and even irretrievable loss. File formats and computer operating systems change rapidly, leading to technological obsolescence. Only specialized training allows institutions to preserve moving-image works, yet few university programs are equipped to provide it. NYU MIAP has emerged as a leader in this field.
The MIAP Master of Arts degree program is a two-year course of study providing students with an international, comprehensive education in the theories, methods, and practices of moving image archiving. Students are exposed to all types and formats of audiovisual material in a wide variety of collections. MIAP combines in-depth archival studies with scholarly investigation into the history, theory, and analysis of media old and new -- all within the humanities-centered Department of Cinema Studies at NYU Tisch.
Awarded by NEH’s Division of Preservation and Access, this grant will fund 24 internships during the next two years. MIAP students will engage in substantive work to support collection care and access. Visit here for more information about MIAP. For more information about NEH, visit its website.
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