Dance/USA’s Archiving and Preservation Fellowships (APF)
are made possible by the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. APF
jointly addresses two urgent challenges in the dance field: the need for
hands-on assistance to independent artists and smaller dance companies to organize
and preserve the records of their work, and the need for more archivists who
are trained and experienced in handling dance materials.
For three years, beginning in 2020, Dance/USA will award four summer Fellowships each year to library science students, who will be paired with professional mentors and will complete practicums in which they assist dance companies or independent artists with preserving and organizing their archives. APF builds on the Fellowships in Archiving and Preservation offered by Dance Heritage Coalition (DHC) between 2001 and 2014.
The goal of this program is to develop an engaged, passionate, and well-trained next generation of archivists in the dance field and to advance models for affordable archiving assistance to regional dance communities. The program also has a specific focus on increasing diversity in the archives field and developing equitable and inclusive models for preserving the full array of voices, practices, and identities within dance communities.The application process for Fellows will open in January 2020, and additional information will be provided on this page.
To learn more about the program, contact Imogen Smith, Director of Archiving and Preservation, at ismith@danceusa.org.
2018 Pilot Fellowships
In July 2018, Dance/USA launched its first Fellowships in Dance Archiving and Preservation for master's degree students in library and information sciences. Through a pilot program generously funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Dance/USA provided two 12-week Fellowship for students enabling them to gain hands-on experience working with dance legacy collections, be mentored by experienced dance archivists, and work directly with a dance company to archive their materials. The first Archiving Fellows were based in Los Angeles and Chicago. Read about the Fellows here.
