Founded in 1991, the Alaska Moving Image Preservation Association (AMIPA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that collects, preserves, and provides access to Alaska’s unique moving image and sound recording heritage.
To perform these functions, AMIPA makes use of a wide variety of legacy and contemporary technical resources. Since 2004, AMIPA has been located in the UAA/APU Consortium Library, where there are temperature and humidity controlled vaults to help maintain the archive of hundreds of collections, consisting of tens of thousands of individual units of motion picture film, video recordings, and audio recordings that have been deposited with the program.
A program like AMIPA is established to preserve the media entrusted to it in perpetuity. The AMIPA endowment fund here at the Alaska Community Foundation generates revenue that the program will be able to make use of for equipment acquisition and maintenance, supplies, shipping, and other expenses, for the indefinite future. Establishing the AMIPA fund is the result of the vision and generosity of Lael Morgan–journalist, writer, educator, and former AMIPA Board Member. It is AMIPA’s intent that Lael’s remarkable gift to the program will continue to grow, and support the mission of media preservation in Alaska for generations to come.
Photo Above: The Bering Sea from an umiak, during a walrus hunt. From East of Siberia (c. 1960), “Trader” Ed Shepherd’s amateur documentary about life on St. Lawrence Island. From a scan of a new 16mm color print, produced under a 2008 National Film Preservation Foundation Partnership Grant.