In pursuing its mandate to preserve recorded sound heritage, the Foundation awards grants to digitally preserve audio collections that are stored on at-risk or obsolete physical media. Since 2016, the Foundation has distributed over a quarter of a million dollars to promote and preserve recorded sound history.
Impact
How have our grants supported audio preservation? Take a look at the numbers:
Grants Awarded
Dollars toward Audio Preservation
Grants Awarded (since 2016)
| Year | Amount | Project | Recipient (Location) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | $8,500.00 | Preserving HBCU Radio Archives at Elizabeth City State University | WYSO Radio (Yellow Springs, OH) |
| 2023 | $8,500.00 | Digitizing Bernard Herrmann's Recordings with the CBS Symphony | University of California, Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, CA) |
| 2023 | $11,350.00 | Preserving Unique and Historical Appalachian Recordings | Appalshop (Whitesburg, KY) |
| 2021 | $8,653.00 | Extracting High-Quality Sound from Sealed Master Molds | Friends of Thomas Edison National Historical Park (West Orange, NJ) |
| 2020 | $8,050.00 | Digitizing Recordings of the Unangax̂ (Alaska Aleut) Peoples | University of Alaska Fairbanks (Fairbanks, AK) |
| 2020 | $3,500.00 | Preserving Unique Recordings from the Soviet and Tsarist Eras | Museum of Russian Culture (San Francisco, CA) |
| 2020 | $14,999.00 | Digitizing Lectures from Iowa State University | Iowa State University Foundation (Ames, IA) |
| 2020 | $14,830.00 | Digitization of Rare Interviews with ‘Outsider’ Artists | American Folk Art Museum (New York, NY) |
| 2019 | $15,000.00 | Digitizing Recordings of Afropop Worldwide | World Music Productions (Brooklyn, NY) |
| 2019 | $10,000.00 | Digitizing Voices in the Wind | National Public Radio (Washington, DC) |
| 2019 | $10,000.00 | Digitizing KUT Radio Collections | KUT Radio (University of Texas at Austin) (Austin, TX) |
| 2019 | $10,000.00 | Digitizing Appalachian Bluegrass Field Recordings | East Tennesee State University Foundation (Johnson City, TN) |
| 2019 | $5,000.00 | Digitizing Georgia Oral Histories, 1966–1968 | Atlanta Historical Society (Atlanta, GA) |
| 2018 | $15,000.00 | Surveying Radio Recording Archives at Historically Black Colleges and Universities | WYSO Radio (Yellow Springs, OH) |
| 2018 | $10,000.00 | Digitizing the Composer to Composer Recordings | Other Minds (San Francisco, CA) |
| 2018 | $10,000.00 | Digitizing WNYC's On the Media | New York Public Radio (New York, NY) |
| 2018 | $15,000.00 | Digitizing the Harry Oster Collection of field recordings | Arhoolie Foundation (El Cerrito, CA) |
| 2016 | $25,000.00 | Preserving the Field Recordings of Mike Seeger | University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC) |
| 2016 | $25,000.00 | Expanding Awareness of the History of U.S. Public Broadcasting | Radio Preservation Task Force (Library of Congress) (Washington, DC) |
| 2016 | $25,000.00 | Preserving Orson Welles on the Air | Indiana University (Bloomington, IN) |
Information for Applicants and Grantees
The Foundation does not currently have any open calls for proposals. Please watch our press releases for annnouncements of any pending NRPF grant opportunities.
Grant recipients should refer to our grant policies page for more information on policies and reporting.
