Crumbling investments and the death of the archive: reflections on sustainability

At the "Death and Life" workshop that was held at University of Technology, Sydney today, a paper presented by Maryanne Dever included a very memorable line relevant to thinking about sustainability of archives generally, but which resonated with my presentation on the challenge of sustaining community music archives in the long-term. Dever said, the nature of investments in the archive are "destined to crumble but at least for the present endure".

Forthcoming presentation at "Death and Life", a pop-up workshop in Sydney organised by Archive Futures

Later this month I will be presenting a paper on DIY archiving at a pop-up workshop in Sydney which has been organised by Archive Futures in association with the Australian Centre for Public History. The workshop, called "Death and Life", will be held on Friday 20th November from 2.30-5pm in UTS Building 10 (Jones Street), Level 9, Room 113. Places at the workshop are limited. If you would like to attend please email: samantha.encarnacion@uts.edu.au

Crowdfunding campaign of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem

In an earlier post I asked if crowdfunding might be a pathway to financial sustainability for DIY popular music archives, museums and halls of fame. A current crowdfunding campaign by The National Jazz Museum in Harlem on the site Indiegogo suggests that some community archives are turning to crowdfunding as a source of much needed cash to keep their operations going.

Abstract accepted for IASPM ANZ conference, December 2015

The 2015 conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music Australia-New Zealand branch will be held this December at the School of Music, Australian National University in Canberra, Australia.  With the theme speaking to 'Popular Music, Stars and Stardom', the conference will be a wonderful opportunity to share with popular music studies colleagues some key findings that have emerged from the research.

Guest blog post: sustainable archiving --- overview of the article "Sustaining popular music's material culture in community archives and museums"

In this post, guest blogger Lauren Istvandity provides an overview of a journal article written by Sarah Baker (Griffith University) and Jez Collins (Birmingham City University) that emerged from the ARC funded project “Do-it-yourself popular music archives” and which was recently published in the journal International Journal of Heritage Studies.

Talking DIY sustainability with Jez Collins at the Poplife conference

It has been an enjoyable two days at "Poplife: the value of popular music in the twenty first century", a conference hosted by the University of Northampton.

The Sarasota Music Archive: a DIY institution housed in a County Library System

I had arrived in Sarasota, Florida, with nothing lined up for my fieldwork. I'd been emailing the Sarasota Music Archive to try and set up some interviews but hadn't received any replies. Yesterday morning, then, it was a case of trying my luck by turning up on the Archive's doorstep and hoping for the best...

Preserving traditional country music in the heart of Texas

There is no time for jet lag on this fieldwork trip to the United States of America. I flew into Dallas Fort Worth on Wednesday and then onto San Angelo Airfield before finally arriving late evening into Brady, Texas (by a stretch limo, no less) - Brady being the home of the Heart of Texas Country Music Museum, a museum dedicated to "preserving and promoting traditional country music".

Panel proposal accepted for the Pop-Life conference

A panel co-organised with Jez Collins (Birmingham City University and Birmingham Music Archive) titled “A pile of history, found in my parents attic”: The everyday histories and archives of popular music heritage” has been accepted for the conference Pop-Life: The Value of Popular Music in the Twenty First Century to be held at the University of Northampton, UK, on 6-7 June 2014. In addition to a co-authored paper by the co-organisers, other papers on the panel will be by Lisa Busby (Goldsmiths, University of London and Editions of You) and Paul Long (Birmingham City University).

Are DIY archives sustainable?

I had hoped to make it back to Germany later this year to visit Jazz Museum Bix Eiben Hamburg and so was sad to learn of the museum’s recent closure. Once again this year (see my post from 29 January 2013) the issue of the sustainability of DIY archives has been brought to the fore.

Crowdfunding the DIY Institution: a pathway to financial sustainability?

What role might crowdfunding have in the financial sustainability of DIY archives and museums?

Forthcoming fieldwork trip to Bremen, Germany

I'm in the process of organising my next stint of overseas fieldwork. This will be another trip to Europe, beginning mid-April. So far I've lined up a visit to the Klaus-Kuhnke-Archiv für Populäre Musik in Bremen, Germany.

The DIY enterprise and issues of sustainability

The fragility of DIY institutions was highlighted for me today following some correspondence with a DIY archivist in the UK. I was saddened to learn that the British Archive of Country Music (BACM) could possibly close its doors if someone isn’t willing to take on this collection of over 500,000 recordings and associated country music artefacts. If this doesn’t happen, the archivist foresees that the collection may very well end up in a tip.