Morgan Morel: Farewell BAVC

Published On: January 31, 2023 |

For the past 5 and a half years I’ve had my dream job at BAVC Media. From my very first week up until my last I’ve had the opportunity to work with so many amazing people, organizations, and collections. I’ve been moved to the brink of tears countless times while digitizing images and sounds containing memories of art, activism, history, and culture. Since the 90’s BAVC’s Preservation Department has been instrumental in advancing the state of audiovisual preservation, and advocating for the preservation of at-risk tape media. BAVC has also been very good to me. The growth I’ve experienced and accomplishments I’ve made could not have been done without the support of the BAVC team and community past and present.

The next chapter in my life is very exciting: I’ll be moving to Culpeper, VA to be the Video Lab Supervisor at the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center. In this position I’ll be managing the Library of Congress’s video digitization lab, and will work to digitize thousands of hours of video tapes containing our nation’s cultural memory and history. I’m thrilled about my new position, but I can’t help but feel bittersweet to be leaving behind an organization that has shaped my life so deeply, as well as the lives and memories of so many others across the world.

I look forward to seeing BAVC Media continue to excel under the leadership of Kelley Coyne and Tim Lake, and also want to thank our Executive Director, Paula Smith Arrigoni, for believing in the mission and goals of the Preservation Department and supporting us along the way.

A message from our Executive Director

As a nonprofit, it’s with a slight amount of dread that you agree to provide an employer reference for a beloved and talented employee. In the case of Morgan Morel, it was three-fold because he’s not only one of the most gifted individuals that I’ve ever had the opportunity to work with, but he’s a delightful, kind person, and he stuck with BAVC Media and our preservation department during hard times. While crying a little on the inside, I told his future employer that they would be crazy not to hire him! Morgan will be deeply missed on BAVC Media’s staff but it feels good knowing that our country’s precious cultural and historical video tapes will be safer under his watch.