BAVC received funding from the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation to support a unique, collaborative effort to digitally preserve and exhibit seminal Bay Area audiovisual works that would otherwise be lost forever. BAVC's Preservation department worked with graduate students in California College for the Arts' Curatorial Practice program to assess hundreds of audiovisual assets from the archives of four iconic Bay Area art institutions — Southern Exposure, Headlands Center for the Arts, SF Cinematheque, and Intersection for the Arts — selecting 40 key pieces that have now been digitally preserved. Spanning the genres of experimental film, visual arts, literature, performance, music, and educational programs, the artists and works selected represent the unique vitality, diversity, and experimental nature of the Bay Area’s art scene, from the 1960s to the present.
BAVC then presented, in collaboration with CCA’s graduate program in Curatorial Practice, Lost Treasures, a three-part program and online archive that showcases these works– some, for the very first time. Written responses to the project, which are collected here, were posted every Wednesday throughout June in conjunction with the BAVC blog.
Lost Treasures was made possible by a grant from the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation. It is a project of Bay Area Video Coalition’s Preservation program in collaboration with the Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice at California College of the Arts, and was supported by the Center for Art and Public Life, Oakland with the cooperation of Headlands Center for the Arts, Southern Exposure, Intersection for the Arts and San Francisco Cinematheque.
