Benedict Olgado, The Explorers Club, Fall 2011, IMLS
Through the generous support of IMLS, The Explorers Club had me as its archive assistant for its film and media collection during the Fall of 2011. It was an enriching internship. For the most part of the program, I had the opportunity to work on the initial key steps towards getting better control of a truly rich collection while also laying the grounds towards establishing a fully functional film and media archive for the Club. After establishing an audiovisual archival workspace and a working database, I mainly inspected, repaired, rehoused and inventoried parts of their film and video collection. Guided by the Club's curator Dorthea Sartain, I was exposed to an archive and its workings within a unique organization that is very much different from traditional memory institutions. Above all, I had the privilege of going through original and rare footage of explorations by club members from as early as 1920s covering places such as the Arctic and South America.
