Artists in Archives

Cans of 35mm still image film lines up on a table in the foreground while hands type on a computer in the background.

CAW Collective services for artists and cultural arts organizations.

Let’s Talk about Your Collection!

CAW Collective supports cultural heritage preservation by activating care in community-held collections and exchanging knowledge through training, networking opportunities, and the production and distribution of resources. 

CAW Collective works with individual artists and organizations of all sizes, including community arts organizations, museums, cultural heritage centers, tribal organizations, and schools of all kinds. Services we can provide include:

  • Project consultation or mentorship to support a specific preservation project
  • Individual training in a specific topic related to preservation, such as inventorying or digitization
  • Community archiving (workshop event planning and delivery)
  • Assistance with collections inventory
  • Training in digital readiness: planning for digitization
  • Preservation stewardship: guidance managing analog to digital migration (working with trusted vendors)

Our partners produce, collect, and safeguard audiovisual works that are essential to understanding cultural production and its relation to social movements. This includes experimental and documentary film, oral histories, performance and dance documentation, endangered language recordings, and historical records that are not captured through the written word. 

Artful cassette cases are lined up in front of a collection of compact audio cassette tapes at the Alaska Heritage Center, Anchorage, Alaska in 2023.
Cassette cases are lined up in front of a collection of compact audio cassette tapes at the Alaska Heritage Center, Anchorage, Alaska in 2023.
Overhead view of rows of video cassette tapes on a table being identified and numbered.
Video cassette tapes receive unique identifiers as they are inventoried during an event in Fitzgerald, GA in 2023.
Small, digital video deck plays the video while it is being captured on the computer in the background.
A Digital 8 video cassette is being digitized
Notepad with handwritten notes and sketches. The central text reads, "The Work of Archiving Enhance Our Lives Right Now."
Notepad with handwritten sketches from Community Archiving Workshop in Belgrade, Serbia. Art by Kur’Ajo Press (Albania), 2026.
Scenes from Community Archiving Workshop. Find your preservation inspiration in your collection.

Artists and cultural organizations can breathe life into their archives by creating both research and artistic production access to their collections. Interested in exploring which services and resources can support your collection? Fill out the contact form to start a conversation about how CAW Collective can support your archiving and preservation goals. We will contact you soon to set up a time to talk.

Let’s Talk about Your Collection!