Charles Weidman Foundation's NYPL Preservation Project

NEW YORK - Oct. 1, 2015 - PRLog -- The Charles Weidman Dance Foundation is pleased to announce the start of the first phase of our effort to digitally preserve the Moving Image Archive of Charles Weidman (1901-1975) at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in Lincoln Center.  The Library was recently awarded a National Historical Publications & Records Commission grant to preserve their Dance Division U-matic videotapes – the U-matic videotape format and its recording and playback hardware are obsolete, which makes these tapes a high priority for preservation.  The project is slated to start October 2015 and conclude September 2017.  This means that all the Charles Weidman U-matic videotape titles in the archive will be digitally preserved and made digitally accessible for current and future generations.  Among the U-matic videotape titles to be preserved are Mr. Weidman’s A House Divided (1945), Easter Oratorio (1967), Saint Matthew Passion (1973), Christmas Oratorio (1961), Atavisms (Lynchtown and Bargain Counter)(1936), and Visualization, or From a Farm in New Jersey (1974).

In the next phase of our project we will continue to work with the Library to preserve the 16 mm film titles at NYPL’s LPA Weidman archive.  The Foundation has earmarked funds to digitally preserve Traditions (1935), Flickers (1941), and Letter to Mrs. Bixby, a Lincoln Portrait (1972) by the end of 2015.  Through the help of our loyal supporters, friends, and contributors we hope to digitally preserve all remaining film titles in the NYPLPA Charles Weidman Moving Image Archive and make them digitally accessible to the public.

If you are interested in making a donation to this project, please visit the Charles Weidman Dance Foundation's website at www.charlesweidman.org/support.