Maintenance Culture logo, a white swirl with pixels turning into a brushstroke and text reading Maintenance Culture: Sustaining Digital Creative Works

Maintenance Culture is a project by Myriad, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities to address challenges related to preserving complex, born-digital, creative works in small institutions. Myriad and collaborators will create and present an innovative, collaborative, digital preservation training program, expanding on existing curricula to specifically cover preserving time-based media art and other complex, born-digital works.

Coming Soon! MaintenanceCulture.org

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Coming Soon! MaintenanceCulture.org 〰️

The 2023 cycle of Maintenance Culture workshops has come to a close. The project’s digital preservation field guide, as well as other free tools and resources on collecting and caring for complex, born-digital creative works, will be available on the new MaintenanceCulture.org website in April of 2024.

Continue to check back here for more details and updates.

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Join a Maintenance Culture Community

We’re building communities in 6 different cities, where we’re hosting workshops and skillshare events in 2023. Find your closest city below to sign up for updates and get involved in your local Maintenance Culture community.

Project Outcomes

  • Workshops & Skillshares

    6 hybrid in-person & virtual digital preservation workshops in Baltimore, Houston, Los Angeles, the Midwest, New Orleans, and Seattle. Skillshares will be held in each city in conjunction with the workshops.

  • Communities

    Connections between creators, galleries, memory institutions, and others interested in preserving complex, born-digital works.

  • Tools and Resources

    A Field Guide, Workbook, Zine, and other tools and resources will be developed for creators, institutions, galleries, and others invested in preserving born-digital, creative works.

  • White Paper

    Map of past and current projects addressing digital preservation of complex creative works, and recommending strategies for sustainability

Collaborators

  • Elena Cordova, Project Director

    Frances Harrell, Grant Administrator and Executive Director of Myriad

  • Baltimore Siobhan Hagan, Mid-Atlantic Regional Moving Image Archive

    Detroit Kristin MacDonough, Art Institute of Chicago and Yvette Ramírez, Doctoral Student at the School of Information, University of Michigan

    Houston Emily Vinson, University of Houston

    Los Angeles Joey Heinen, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

    New Orleans Ashley Shabankareh, Trombone Shorty Foundation

    Seattle Libby Hopfauf, Moving Image Preservation of Puget Sound

  • Ashley Blewer, Daily

    Darius Kazemi, Meedan

    Gabriel Barcia-Colombo, NYU Tisch

    Joana Stillwell, Mid-Atlantic Regional Moving Image Archive

  • Eddy Colloton, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

    Joey Heinen, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

    Julia Kim, National Library for the Blind and Print Disabled

    Lorena Ramirez-Lopez, Webrecorder

    Mary Kidd, New York Public Library

  • Danielle Spalenka, Filson Historical Society

    Jessica Bitely, Boston Public Library

    Margo Padilla, New York Historical Society

    Stacey Erdman, Arizona State University

Connect

Join a Maintenance Culture Community near you, or connect with Maintenance Culture virtually through our blog, newsletter, or Discord server.

Read our blog for project news, previews of forthcoming work, and more.

Discord is a virtual chat space where you can connect with other community members.

Subscribe for monthly updates on Maintenance Culture and other Myriad projects.


 
National Endowment for the Humanities Seal
 

Maintenance Culture has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed on this website do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.