Back to search
Arcadia

Arcadia serves humanity by preserving endangered cultural heritage and ecosystems.

We protect complexity and work against the entropy of ravaged and thereby starkly simplified natural environments and globalized cultures. Innovation and change occur best in already complex systems. Once memories, knowledge, skills, variety, and intricacy disappear – once the old complexities are lost – they are hard to replicate or replace. Arcadia aims to return to people both their memories and their natural surroundings. What we want to preserve remains fragile, small and dispersed. But if we do not protect it – if it vanishes forever – then future generations will have no base from which to build a vibrant, resilient, green future.

Because knowledge should belong to all, we also promote open access, seeking to make information available without barriers of cost or distance. Charities, businesses, universities, schools, the media, politicians, and citizens all benefit when research and data are no longer locked behind paywalls or reserved for those who live near their repositories. The economy benefits too from better-informed decisions, improved schooling and knowledgeable citizens, from enhanced academic research and innovation based on shared knowledge.

We do not accept applications, but seek and support organizations run by exceptional individuals, operating in a cost-effective, scientifically sound, and ethical manner that share our vision.

Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin

Funder Website

Arcadia Projects

3 0048

Film censorship in Argentina (1969-1984)

The Museo del Cine "Pablo Ducrós Hicken" Library and Archive contains documents of testimonies covering a period of turmoil and upheaval in Argentina, including articles, inte…

Explore project
3 0047 rz

Digitization of Folklore Archive at Rudaki Institute of Lang. and Lit.

The Rudaki Institute of Language and Literature archive serves as one of very few existing repositories of Tajikistan's expressive culture. This project works to preserve and …

Explore project
3 0046

Digitizing vulnerable community-held archives of human rights in Colombia

The Fundación Guagua archive in Colombia documents the hardships faced by victims of armed conflict, including cases of extrajudicial killings, torture, massacres, crimes agai…

Explore project
3 0045

The Lubumbashi art collection archive: survey and evaluation

This collection represents the cultural and art history of the city of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from the 1950s to the present. Materials include manu…

Explore project
MEAP UCLA

Historical Memory of Brazil's National Federation of Domestic Workers

Despite their socioeconomic impact and significance, historical materials reflecting the life of domestic workers in Brazil have remained underrepresented. The collection of w…

Explore project
MEAP UCLA

Rescuing two key series of the Old Prison Isla Teja Archive, Valdivia-Chile

The Isla Teja Old Prison archive contains records from the prison's operation from 1973 to 2007 as a standard and political prison during Pinochet's dictatorship. The material…

Explore project
2 0041

The Photographer who woke up from the Dead - Mohlouoa T. Ramakatane

Throughout his career as a Lesotho portraitist, Mohlouoa T. Ramakatane, collected papers, photographs, and negatives to document his 50+ year career, including his role as off…

Explore project
2 0039 rz

Digitization of Justice court files under authoritarian regimes in Amazonia

Court records from Óbidos, Brazil document the daily life of Amazonian people through several authoritarian regimes from 1900 - 1988, a period of great political and cultural …

Explore project
2 0038

Digitization of the Diocesan Curia of Nova Iguaçu’s (Brazil) Archive

Throughout the 1940’s to 2015, the Archive of the Diocesan Curia of Nova Iguaçu (ACDNI) has accumulated a rich collection of the documents that record the activism of the Braz…

Explore project