Independent Media Arts Preservation

Independent Media Arts Preservation
A service, education, and advocacy consortium, IMAP was organized in 1999 to ensure the preservation of independent electronic media for cultural and educational use by future generations. These works are found throughout the country in museums, arts centers, artists' spaces, dance and theater companies, libraries, university departments, non-profit distributors, public television stations, and with individual artists or producers. IMAP is especially interested in supporting the preservation of works reflecting the early history of independent media, when producers first expanded the options for media production and distribution beyond commercial applications of electronic tools and traditional forms of broadcast television. IMAP is the only art service organization focused solely on issues of electronic media preservation.

IMAP's primary interest is to support the preservation of works reflecting the early history of independent media, and focuses on the preservation of non-commercial productions such as video art, audio art, and technology-based installation art; independent documentary and narratives; community media; and documentation of arts and culture.

IMAP was formed in part to continue the leadership formerly undertaken by the New York-based organization Media Alliance.

IMAP consortium members represent a wide range of organizations and individuals including the Museum of Modern Art, the Donnell Media Center, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Jewish Museum, the Whitney Museum, the Experimental Television Center, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Paper Tiger Television, Third World Newsreel, Syracuse University, Bay Area Video Coalition, Wexner Center for the Arts, and the Video Data Bank as well as artists, curators, and educators concerned with the preservation of the independent media arts.