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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

ELDP

Documentation of Pna 'oral traditions' in Koto Keras, Kerinci, Indonesia

The Endangered Language Documentation Programme (ELDP) provides grants worldwide to for the linguistic documentation of endangered language and knowledge. Grantees create mult…

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ELDP

Documentation and description of the Pakatan language spoken in Hoanh Son, Quang Binh province, Vietnam.

The Endangered Language Documentation Programme (ELDP) provides grants worldwide to for the linguistic documentation of endangered language and knowledge. Grantees create mult…

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DGV0100 3 archive musicians

The Ricardo Montejano Collection: Social movements and Mexican rural and native cultures

From 1970 to the present, Ricardo Montejano collected original field and studio recordings of the voices of various populations in Mexico. The collection illuminates a history…

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Meap0021 promo comp

Saving, Digitizing and Providing Access for Educational and Research Purposes to Albania’s Photographic and Graphic Art Collections of its Archival Motion Picture Legacy

By digitizing a collection of ephemeral objects and photo negatives, the AQSHF will chronicle the development of the Albanian film industry from 1946 to the 2000's. Items incl…

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MEAP UCLA

Our History is Our Force: Protecting Haitian National Patrimony

The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) has partnered with the Institut de Sauvegarde du Patrimoine National (ISPAN) to protect Haitian national patrimony. dLOC will digit…

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DGV0104 10 farm

Labor, Livelihood, and Immigration in a Brazilian Plantation: the Archives of Ibicaba Farm (1890-1970)

As of the 1840s, plantations in southwestern Brazil started to experiment with European immigrant labor co-existing with the enslaved black population. The Ibicaba farm was a …

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DGV0088 1v3

Exploring Regional Engagement with Film in India through a Collection of Celluloid Ephemera

As traditional cinema in India transitioned to an era of digital film, physical reels grew out of fashion and were often abandoned and left to deteriorate. The Shabistan Film …

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DGV0069 1

El gran film del Uruguay - Colección Carlos Alonso / The Great Film of Uruguay - Carlos Alonso Collection

A compilation of nitrate film shot in a documentary style, known as the Alonso Collection, captures a rich visualization of Uruguay's historic countryside. The Universidad Cat…

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MEAP UCLA

Documenting Barbadian Voices from Emancipation to Independence

Throughout the 1800s to the 2000s, Barbadian life was captured and documented by a plethora of written publications and ephemera housed by the Barbados Department of Archives.…

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