PACME Fellowship 2026
Do you have many materials documenting community stories, cultural work, or activism that need to be digitized and preserved?
Have you been documenting your group or organization’s history for a long time, but are not sure how to preserve it?
Are you interested in learning more about the ins and outs of archiving and preserving, and how to make your materials accessible to your communities in ways that are just and empowering?
The People’s Media Record invites you to join us for a nine-month fellowship to build archiving and preservation skills in the community, planning alongside a group of your peers for the long-term care and activation of local neighborhood, community, and movement histories.
We know that people trying to preserve community media — materials created by communities to communicate about their experiences, cultures, histories, struggles, and desires — face many barriers. We offer this fellowship to you because we believe that you and the communities you work with deserve to be supported and empowered in this practice.
From March to December 2026, you will meet with a small group of fellows to engage in learning about archiving and preservation, connecting it to the specific needs of your collection and communities.
We will be offering the possibility to receive up to $1,000 per month over the nine months to be awarded to each fellow ($9,000.00 total).
Program Goals:
By the end of this program, fellows will have:
- Gained proficiency in preservation and archiving best practices and how they may be used to ensure the long-term viability and accessibility of their materials according to their communities’ needs. Topics that will be covered include digitization, digital preservation, metadata and cataloging, copyright, activation, and resource mobilization.
- Gained skills and knowledge in advocating for the importance of community media preservation, especially for historically oppressed groups.
- Learned how to navigate limited funding and resources collectively to ensure the sustainability of their projects at the grassroots level.
- Developed relationships with other community media practitioners while fostering cooperation and knowledge exchange.
- Organized an event with their communities that facilitates the activation of their materials and collective reflection around these stories, their long-term care, and how they can lead to building community power.
Program Expectations:
Fellows are expected to participate in online and in-person workshops, which require active engagement and the capacity to build upon their planning and ongoing work related to their collections.
These sessions will require the fellows’ active participation, building on their planning and work around their collections. For the fellowship to be successful, fellows must dedicate a minimum of ten hours per month to working with their materials, a process that they will document and share with us and the other fellows.
Every month, there will be individual check-ins between the fellows, facilitators, and relevant PMR staff to clarify any questions or issues that arise and provide additional support.
With our financial and logistical support, fellows are also expected to organize at least one community event, in which they will apply some of the lessons learned throughout the fellowship.
The goals of this event are to activate the collections within the context of the communities and spaces to which they belong and to facilitate connections around storytelling and the long-term care of community stories.
Who is a good fit for this fellowship, and how to apply:
- PMR welcomes applications from individuals responsible for managing a substantial collection of community media. By substantial, we mean a collection that is large in volume, has been created over a period of time, and holds importance for Philly’s communities. Community media is a broad concept that encompasses the production of community media centers, such as PhillyCAM and Scribe Video Center, as well as community newspapers like Philadelphia Gay News, the recording of performance and open-mic series, and even podcasts.
- PMR especially welcomes applications from people whose collections focus on at least one of the following formats: analog audio, analog video, digital audio, digital video, print, and digital photographs.
- PMR especially welcomes individuals with limited formal expertise and training in archiving and preservation, as well as those who have experienced individual, organizational, or structural marginalization in educational opportunities.
- PMR especially welcomes applications from people working within groups or organizations that either do not have funding for, or which have limited funding for, archiving and preserving their media content.
Apply here by November 30 at 11:59 p.m. EST. Send any questions you have to PACME Coordinator Rasheed Z. Ajamu at rasheed@peoplesmediarecord.com.
See our Q&A Session.
On November 12, People’s Media Record held a Q&A Session for applicants to ask questions about the application and the process. We encourage you to check out the full conversation and see if more questions arise for you.