BAVC's role is to place technology and training in the hands of noncommercial producers from all communities and disciplines. BAVC encourages the development of nonprofit programming that involves creative risks and addresses unserved, underserved and minority points of view. To achieve its mission of serving independent video artists and nonprofit organizations, BAVC offers the following services:
Funded in part by an NEA Challenge Award, BAVC's cleaning and transfer center remasters 1/2" open reel works to SVHS, 3/4" SP, Betacam SP or 1" tape and digital formats. Other obsolete formats are currently being researched. BAVC will offer workshops and share information on technical aspects of preserving videotape.
BAVC, with 18 years of experience providing state-of-the-art technical facilities to the media arts field, has established a professionally equipped nonprofit preservation unit, where trained technicians transfer archival material to current video formats.
BAVC offers a national service for high-quality, inexpensive cleaning and transferring services to museums and nonprofit institutions as well as artists. In 1994, BAVC's work in developing video preservation was recognized with a prestigious Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. BAVC offers the following archiving services:
BAVC is the largest nonprofit media arts production/postproduction center in the country--the only one with broadcast-level services that meet PBS requirements. BAVC was founded in 1976 by the Rockefeller Foundation to guarantee that the nonprofit sector had access to tools and training that would allow them to reach broad audiences through television and electronic media programming.
In 1992 BAVC was approached by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Pacific Film Archives, NEA, Minnesota Historical Society and others to tackle the problem of video preservation. In the first nine months of operation, BAVC successfully transferred over 500 1/2" open-reel tapes for the San Francisco Public Library, Minnesota Historical Society, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and many others.
Minnesota Historical Society
Inrmedia Arts
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Pacific Film Archive
San Francisco Public Library
Margaret Jenkins Dance Company
Chip Lord
Mary Lucier
Video Data Bank
Vito Acconci
Joan Jonas
William Wegman
For more information contact Grace Lan at (415) 861-3282, x16; Fax (415) 861-4316