About BAVC’s Preservation Access Program:
Since 1994, BAVC has served as the nation’s hub for the preservation of culturally significant and community-based media, ensuring the survival of (and continued access to) video art, independently produced media and video documentation of cultural and political events since the late 1960s. BAVC rigorously maintains and upgrades obsolete post-production equipment in our dedicated preservation lab to best serve the unique preservation needs of the organizations that hold our national audiovisual heritage.
BAVC’s Preservation Department works with museums, artists, and cultural institutions around the world to remaster, transfer, and archive seminal creative and historical works on video and audio tape.
With generous funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, BAVC will be offering a discount of up to 50% for tape-to-file video preservation transfer services to individual artists and small-to-medium-sized arts and cultural heritage organizations.
Eligibility:
US-based individual artists and visual, performing and cultural arts organizations, historical societies, and regional archives with arts-related collections are invited to apply for discounted services through the application process. Organizations' annual operating budgets must not exceed $500,000 for eligibility.
Application:
To apply, please fill out the following form by Monday, February 17th. Organizations will be required to submit a 501c3 verification and their current budget (501c3 verification does not apply to individual applicants). Please attach any existing inventory or documentation of your collection.
You can SAVE the form and RESUME later by clicking through the respective links at the bottom of this form.
If you have questions and live in the Bay Area, BAVC will be holding a free public event on Saturday, February 1st to discuss the program, application tips, and preservation techniques. In addition, there will be a screening showcasing materials digitized by past BAVC PAP recipients. If you can't make it to the event and have any questions about the application, feel free to reach out to us directory at preservation@bavc.org
The applications will be reviewed by a selection panel made up of artists, archivists, media specialists, and community members. The final selections are made based off of the reviews provided by the panelists. If there is any information that you want the panelists to know about you or your collection please make sure to include it in the application.
Advisory:
For those interested in preservation transfers, please note that approved applicants will be responsible for providing the following before transfer work can begin:
signed service contract agreement
complete payment of the discounted price
shipping costs (where applicable)
hard drive on which to deliver the digital files
The turnaround for Preservation Access Program digitization projects is usually about 6 to 8 months from the time that the application closes. If you need your materials quicker than that, please contact us directly before applying.
Please note that BAVC Preservation cannot digitize materials that suffer from mold damage or contamination. Before these materials can be digitized they will need to be sent to a third-party remediation specialists. The cost for mold remediation by these specialists averages about $150 per tape, and is not eligible for the discount offered for the transfers services.