Community Archiving Workshop (CAW)

Whether videotaping a graduation ceremony or recording a sporting event, documenting a community’s history is only the first step in preserving our history for future generations. As years go by and video and audio formats change, countless memories are locked away on obsolete and deteriorating tapes. The first step in accessing these valuable materials is to clearly identify what a collection contains so that the most important and most at-risk recordings can be preserved and made available for viewing and listening again. You are invited to attend a workshop where experts from NMAAHC come together with members of the First Shiloh Baptist Church of Buffalo, the Colored Musicians Club and Jazz Museum, and the WUFO/Black Radio History Collective to develop an archiving strategy for their collections. Learn archiving skills and hear about how specific steps for preservation can be applied directly to your organization’s needs. To learn more about the process, please visit https://communityarchiving.org/. In association with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (SI-NMAAHC) Robert Frederick Smith (RFS) Center for the Digitization and Curation of African American History and the Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor Commission (MSAAHCC), the Community Archive Workshop provides community historians the opportunity to serve regional organizations and work with local volunteers to help them gain intellectual and physical control over some of their most fragile historical documents and recordings. On Friday, June 5th, workshop participants will receive training to conduct basic processing, cataloging, and inspection of audiovisual materials. By doing so, participants will learn how to identify risk factors and make recommendations for preserving audiovisual collections. Most importantly, they will make it possible for community members to preserve their organizations’ history for future generations. About the Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor: The Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor is a nationally and internationally recognized Buffalo neighborhood that serves as the focal point of residents’ and visitors’ experiences for learning about Buffalo’s rich African American history through its vibrant neighborhoods, shops, restaurants, unique structures, historical markers, people and institutions, as well as its significant impact on local, national and international history. As an advocate for the community, the Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor Commission endeavors to integrate African American cultural significance and impact on Buffalo’s history through public engagement, community education that will invigorate, inspire and enliven cultural appreciation, preservation and community development. About the SI-NMAAHC Smith Center: The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (SI-NMAAHC) Robert Frederick Smith (RFS) Center for the Digitization and Curation of African American History uses an innovative approach to technology to preserve African American history, through four related initiatives: the Explore Your Family History Center (FHC), the Community Curation Program (CCP), the Great Migration Home Movie Project (GMHMP), and the Internships and Fellowships Program (IFP). Through each component, the Museum seeks to expand access to African American history and cultivate broad interest in America’s Black past, genealogy, and culture. Through the Community Curation Program, the Smith Center collaborates with cultural heritage sites, libraries, archives, historical societies, and HBCUs to preserve historical materials and make them more accessible, supporting these institutions’ sustainability and demonstrating their relevance to a broader and deeper understanding of human experience. We seek out community-based archives and work with them to create digital spaces and resources that tell the stories of historically Black neighborhoods and institutional anchors such as churches, schools, and Black-owned businesses, to facilitate inspiring, social justice-centered educational experiences for museum audiences. Ongoing digitization, preservation and education projects and relationships with both rural and urban African American communities amplify the experiences and perspectives of groups that have been underrepresented in museums, not only in terms of documenting and narrating the stories of institutions, communities, and individuals of people of African descent, but also as professionals working in museum spaces, so that descendant communities can impactfully and thoughtfully engage with their own histories.

Event Links

Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/3649800-0

Website: https://go.evvnt.com/3649800-2

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