Status Report

Many of you only know the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive from this website. So I want to fill you all in on the challenges we face behind the scenes.

Many thanks to the following for helping us get our scanning station back up and operational again:

Donation in memory of Gilda Palinginis
James Cina
Hardeep Kharbanda
Eric Hansen
Don Cox

We could use help from more great supporters like this. The equipment at the Archive is beginning to show its age.

Before we began this project four years ago, we conducted a fundraising drive among the local animation community to purchase four computers- three G4 iMac workstations and a G5 scanning station. These computers have seen daily use since we opened to the public. In the past couple of months, we have had two boot drive crashes, and have seen two DVD drives fail. We will likely need to replace most if not all of these computers in the next six months or so.

The main challenge we face is funding... our eternal problem it seems. The Archive Project is currently funded from three principle sources... The money to keep the Archive's only employee (me) on staff comes from the membership dues. The rent and utilities for maintaining the storefront in Burbank is covered by a generous grant from the Walter Lantz Foundation. Our website costs, supplies and equipment are funded by direct donations to the archive from the general public, fundraising events throughout the year, and through the PayPal links on the website.

Since the economy took a turn downward, direct donations have dwindled down to a trickle. I understand that times are tough for a lot of people, so I have skipped our last two bi-annual fundraising drives here on the site, choosing to raise money through the sale of fine art prints at Imagekind and Zim books to fill in until the economy improves. Although these sales are sufficient for maintaining the website and purchasing the occasional backup drive, they can't begin to cover the replacement cost of our aging computer equipment.

We need to find a way to begin swapping out our old PowerPC Macs with the new Intel ones. If any of our readers plan to replace a relatively recent Mac with a new one this Christmas, ASIFA-Hollywood would greatly appreciate the donation of your old computer. If you are able to contribute to us through our PayPal links or by check, we can begin putting together the funds to purchase the rest of the equipment we need.

So far, no corporate sponsors have stepped up to the plate to support the Archive Project. This is discouraging, but it won't prevent us from accomplishing our goals. I know artists at all of the animation studios in Hollywood take advantage of the information we offer. If you work for a studio, let your bosses know how important the Archive is to your daily work, and encourage them to support the project. If you can, make a personal donation to help us continue to bring you the riches of inspiration and technique from cartooning's past.

Donations, large and small add up, and our volunteers are doing great things with extremely modest resources. If this project is important to you, please think about what you can do to help us meet our current challenge. We appreciate your support.

Posting on this site will be suspended for about a week while we recoup. The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive in Burbank will be closed to the public for the next few days to allow our volunteers time to work on rebuilding the scanning station. I will let you know when we will be resuming regular hours again. Volunteers are welcome. (Especially those with experience in swapping hard drives in Macs.) Email me at sworth@animationarchive.org if you can help.

Thank you
Stephen Worth
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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