Archive Working Group Report to Assembly 2007

Archive Working Group Report 2007

Since our last report in April 2006, the Archive Working Group has continued to make progress collecting, organizing and preserving educational materials of Moshe Feldenkrais and his Method.

The group itself has expanded and a number of initiatives to provide access to some contents of the archive for practitioners are underway. Our contract with the estate is being renewed and we are turning our attention to policy, long term planning and fundraising.

Preservation
We continue to prioritize our mandate and contractual obligation to preserve the materials.  

Through the efforts of group member Kim Cottrell, the deteriorating manuscript of the Potent Self has been restored by a conservator.  Each page was immersed in filtered water alkalized with ammonium hydroxide to reduce discoloration, embrittlement and acidity. After air drying, pages were humidified and flattened between blotters in a press. Damaged pages were mended. Pages were inserted into mylar sleeves suitable for scanning and handling and stacked in order in an archival box cushioned for safe fitting.
We now plan to move ahead to scan the entire manuscript.  

Some articles in large formats are being scanned for digital preservation and access.

We continue to convert aging tape to digital formats. To date, over two hundred hours (200!) of Feldenkrais teaching previously unavailable material has been digitized. This year, in conjunction with the Distribution center, we have preserved in digital format 6 weeks of the San Francisco training tapes which will be released with transcripts of that training. We released the Pribram discussions in mp3 format and a public workshop from Rotterdam in 1976. Material from public workshops in Canada in 1973 and 74 is being catalogued and prepared for publication by the Distribution Center.

Acquisition
A number of items of interest to the Archive came to our attention and acquisitions were made.  Philippe LeBlond has donated a copy of video of lecture Feldenkrais gave in Switzerland. We acquired  video of Feldenkrais giving Functional Integration lessons and Awareness Through Movement for senior citizens at the University of Maryland in the late 1970’s.

Preparation
The large number of images from Bob Knighton material continue to be organized in preparation for making a database. A number of these images have been posted on the Archive website with more to follow. Some of these images have been used for the cover of the San Francisco Training Transcripts.  

Access
Researchers continue to access the archive.
• Photos and information on archive holdings have been provided to Mark Reese for the biography he is writing.  
• Photos from the Knighton collection have been provided to Feldenkrais Resources for their republication of San Francisco year 3.
• Photos have been used for San Francisco Training transcripts year one.
• The Awareness study group has used audio of the Awareness lecture in their work and referenced the DVD in their report.
• Lesson in French have been provided to Feldenkrais France for evaluation and they have determined the material is worth publishing. They are listening to obtain titles and organize for eventual publication.
• The Archive provided a number of video and audio recordings to Feldenkrais-Gilde Deutschland. For various reasons most has not been usable but one audio recording-- a text Moshe is dictating for later publication as an article—is intended for publication this year.

The new IFF practitioner website is being used as a primary means of access to some holdings that are not viable products for publishing. In addition to material being released by the Distribution Center, five hours of audio of Dr. Feldenkrais teaching Awareness Through Movement, lecturing and talking about his life has been posted on the IFF Practitioner website.

Fundraising
Problems with collecting donations via the website were not resolved in this past year, hampering our efforts to use the Awareness Lecture DVD to raise funds. Some contributions were collected at the IFF Assembly and the FGNA annual conference. We hope this problem is resolved soon so our fundraising efforts can bear fruit.

The 2007 FGNA annual conference is in Portland Oregon where the archive is housed. We plan to use this opportunity to promote the work of the archive and raise more funds.

We need to undertake initiatives to raise funds outside the community. New AWG members with grant writing or fundraising expertise are needed.

Meetings
Becci Parsons and Richard Ehrman were joined by Kim Cottrell  and Jaclyn Boone (in Portland on DC business) for a productive 3 days of meetings and work. We held a joint meeting of AWG/DC, including a discussion of the relationship, projects, access policies, and publication plans. The AWG meetings discussed website plans, access and loan policies.

Other activities included:

Organizing the Amherst Karzen photos into archive database
Reviewed recently developed photo material taken by Mark Wolgensinger
Purchased digital scanner for future digitization work.
Reorganized storage crates to accommodate new digitizations and acquisitions.
Reviewed Tel-Aviv materials, took steps needed to move project..
Back –up to hard drive Archive audio.
Knighton photo sets separated and identified. 1976 images sent to editor of SF yr 2

Future Plans/Needs
The 2005 report noted that the AWG forwarded preliminary work on access policies to the IFF Board. Another year has passed without any response. We would like to move forward in this area so the community is clear on how the archive can benefit them so request some feedback to this initial document from the IFF BOD.

As more material is preserved, the need for an advisory evaluation group becomes more pressing. Forming such a group without increasing demands on volunteer time is a challenge but we continue to look for qualified and interested parties.  

As mentioned above, fundraising outside the community should be pursued. Archival practices should be researched so we can apply what might be appropriate to our organization.

The database needs extensive work and revision to accommodate new acquisitions not covered by contract with the estate and enable member access to the information.

We hope to bring more resources to bear on the enormous amount of work involved in scanning and organizing photos, documents and manuscripts. The new DC offices have space for archive working group activities of scanning and short-term storage.

In conclusion, the Archive Working Group has continued with its preservation activities and released some of its holdings to the community with another 100 hours due to be released this year. We are in need of resources to improve the website, continue work on images, assess material and raise funds. Important policy work has not gone forward as we use our time to work on getting the material preserved and protected.

I note financial support for the Archive remains at less than 10% of the IFF budget and all of our preservation costs have been paid for by our own fundraising. Given the importance of this project and the value of these materials to the community, this level of support is inadequate. We encourage the IFF Board to increase support of this project as requested in proposed budget to meet the goals described above.

Richard Ehrman
For the Archive Working Group

Kim Cottrell
Richard Ehrman
George Krutz
Becci Parsons
Dirk Steinkamp

Digitization
#1-9: Jerico Hill workshop (approx 12 hours of material)
#32-41: September 1979,  unknown (approx 15 hours of material)
#82-86 June/July 1978 (approx 9 hours)
#114-122: Roterdam 1976 (approx 14 hours of material)
#176: San Juan Bautista 73.7.23 (producing approximately 2 hours of material)
#391-2: French at Dolto’s (Approximately 3 hours of material)
#396-9: Art Gallery (approx 6 hours of material)
#397, 398, 399A & B: Art Gallery, Canada, 1974
# 409: Lessons in French (producing approximately 5 hours of material)
#453-5, 781A, B: Canada 1974
#464: Lessons in English (producing approximately 11 hours of material)
#560: Lessons in Hebrew (producing approximately 4 hours of material)
#271: MF on bookstabe (producing approximately 1 hour of material)
#410: Grundlegende Bewegen (producing approximately 11 hours of material)
# 770: Interview in Hebrew with Aron Meskin
#780: Unknown
#890: Lecture in German (producing approximately 1 hour of material)
#841 to 845: Freiberg workshop (on digital video tape and DVD)
#905-909: Workshop Washington 1979 (approx 9 hours of material)
#919-915: Boulder Colorado ((approx 7 hours of material)
#973-981: Edmonds Center (approximately 14 hours of material)
San Francisco Training weeks 1-6 (approximately 75 hours of material)
#430 to 432: 8mm colour slides
#811: 35mm black and white film

Photocopies have been made of:
#1021 to 1023 Tel Aviv university lectures
#1016: Jean Houston interview transcript
#1014 Korper-Geist Beziehungen
#1015: Die Miskular der Seele.

The manuscript of The Potent Self (#1024) has been treated and preserved by a paper conservator.