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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

2 0028

Conserving the Archives of Progressive Pakistan

In resistance to the centralizing government state, those of the Pakistan progressive movement left behind a rich archive of photographs, written works, recorded interviews, a…

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2 0027

Visual Histories of Northeast India

Throughout the 1960’s onward, local tribe communities in Northeast India has remained isolated from other regions, and has in turn received little coverage in academia. Howeve…

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2 0026

Survey and Digital Preservation of Upcountry Tamil Archival Records

The community of Malaiyaka Tamilar, also known as the Upcountry Tamil community, have been repressed historically, politically, and socially within Sri Lanka. However, their c…

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MEAP UCLA

Preserving Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis: The Role of Social Media

Through the power of social media, Syrians who have been tragically displaced from their homes come together online to share their experiences and nostalgic memories of the pa…

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2 0024

Valorization, recover and digitization of the local archives of Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo: an initial step towards open access

Since the 1970s, the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo have worked towards locating children who were kidnapped during the Argentine dictatorship. Throughout their work for human right…

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2 0023

Memories of Resistance: A Digital Archive of Chile’s Graphic Resistance

From 1977 to the present, the Tallersol Cultural Centre’s graphic arts workshop created a rich collection of posters and printed works in support of the resistance movement in…

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2 0021

Memories from no-man's land: Archives of the Peruvian self-defense militias

The Peruvian armed conflict (1980-2000), ignited by communist rebels of Shining Path, put local communities at risk of both guerrilla attacks and state forces. This project wi…

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2 0020

The archives of the women movement in Sudan, 1940-2010

This project works to document the history of feminine and feminist movements that took place in 1940s El Obeid, Wad Medani, Atbara-- the three major urban centers of Sudan. T…

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Endangered Wooden Architecture Programme

To establish a grant-giving programme that offers grants for the documentation of endangered wooden architecture.

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