Endowment for a permanent, dedicated position of Curator for the Wesleyan Cinema Archives

FAIN: CH-51003-12

Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT 06459-3208)
Jeanine D. Basinger (Project Director: May 2011 to April 2016)

Endow archivist/curator position in the Wesleyan Cinema Archives, a major repository of materials on the motion picture arts, culture, and industry.

Wesleyan University requests a challenge grant of $500,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to endow a permanent, dedicated position of Curator of the Wesleyan Cinema Archives. The Wesleyan Cinema Archives is a major repository of materials on the motion picture arts, culture, and industry and has become a vital resource for students, scholars from across the world, as well as the general public. The Curator will lead the Archives in obtaining new acquisitions, facilitate cataloging and processing, as well as expand the Archives' ability to exhibit and provide educational access to its moving image papers and artifacts. Wesleyan will raise $1.5 million from non-federal sources to meet this challenge. An NEH Challenge Grant will enable us to pursue leadership gifts as we approach the public phase of a major fund-raising campaign and provide an opportunity for prospective donors to think more broadly about their support of the humanities.