Yes, We Scan
Building Media Conservation and Digitization at the National Museum of African American History and Culture
Walter Forsberg, Media Archivist for the National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian, will present an overview of the new museum’s audiovisual digitization programs and activities, in place since 2014. Forsberg will discuss how NMAAHC established digital file-management workflows, target specifications, equipment sourcing, and access platforms, alongside screenings of newly-digitized collections. He’ll showcase highlights from the museum’s “Great Migration Home Movie Digitization” public project, and announce details regarding the institution’s new Robert F. Smith Fund—a partnership program aimed at digitizing and sharing collections of African American cultural material held by other institutions.
Speakers
Walter Forsberg works in film culture and is Media Archivist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Alumnus of New York University’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation graduate program, Walter was the technical architect of the New Museum of Contemporary Art’s XFR STN exhibition, winner of the 2014 Innovation Award for digital stewardship from the Library of Congress. His recent writing on film appears in BlackFlash magazine, the Strange Currencies: Art & Action in MexicoCity, 1990-2000 exhibition catalog, and in the INCITE Journal of Experimental Media, where he is a contributing editor.
