Association Of Moving Image Archivists

Association of Moving Image Archivists, a tax-exempt nonprofit based in Los Angeles, is a recipient of federal grants supporting audiovisual preservation training, professional development, and archival workforce expansion, competing exclusively through grant awards rather than contract vehicles.

The organization's federal footprint centers entirely on recipient-level grant work with three agencies — the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) — across five, three, and two awards respectively. AMIA operates exclusively as a prime recipient; it has neither federal contract awards nor subcontract awards in the source data. The combined obligated dollars across all ten awards total $2.6 million, with activity concentrated among three grantor agencies over the past five years.

AMIA's grant portfolio emphasizes audiovisual preservation workforce development and community archiving. The largest recent award is a $547,910 project grant from IMLS under the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program (CFDA 45.313), running through August 2029, to extend an existing fellowship program that supports two cohorts of fellows through paid internships, mentorship, professional development, and continuing alumni programming. Fellows work with audiovisual collections at host institutions and partner with the Community Archiving Workshop collective to gain hands-on experience supporting under-resourced community archives; the program explicitly targets individuals unable to pursue graduate education as a pathway into audiovisual preservation. An earlier IMLS project grant (August 2023 through February 2026) supported the Pathways Fellowship Program, which provides paid internships combined with mentorship and professional development for people from historically underrepresented groups in media preservation, including BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, and neurodivergent individuals. A $349,423 NEH Division of Preservation and Access grant (CFDA 45.149, March 2024 through February 2026) funds the "Circle of Care for Audiovisual Collections in Tribal Archives" initiative, training tribal archivists and librarians in assessing, inventorying, digitizing, and managing audiovisual collections through onsite workshops and a new online module on digital file storage and maintenance. AMIA also received an IMLS grant to train archivists through the Autistic Voices Oral History Project, equipping both professionals and autistic individuals with skills to document and co-curate autistic narratives; deliverables include two workshops, 48 oral histories, and enhanced accessible metadata.

One award reaches ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating limited near-term recompete exposure. AMIA's operational scope is place of performance Hollywood, California, with grant activities extending to tribal communities and partner archival institutions nationwide.