Recent Posts

This summer, I had the privilege of interning at the Rockefeller Archive Center as part of the RAC-CCNY Internship Hybrid Program.

My time at the RAC has been anything but boring. I remember my first day passing by a few charming used book shops, a second hand clothing store with a statue of the headless horseman, while the smell of incense drifted from a psychic parlor into my nostrils. Because of its quirks and oddities, Tarrytown feels like a village that has been trapped in time. As I drove up the long-winding roads to the Archive Center, I felt a sense of calm in the still air.

In July 2013, the Digital Programs team first drafted a set of fifteen values to guide our work. Ten years later, these values have evolved substantially, and have also helped to drive the transformation of what is now the Digital Strategies team, as well as the entire organization. It seemed like a good moment to take stock of our individual and collective engagement with these values.

The Rockefeller Archive Center’s Board of Trustees recently approved the organization’s new Mission, Vision, and Values statements. As our Board member Alondra Nelson said, though, the process of developing these statements is as important as the results themselves, and so we want to share that journey with you.

Last week I attended the Technology Association of Grantmakers (TAG) conference. There’s a lot to reflect on coming out of that gathering, and while many of the threads feel disparate, it felt important to try and make some sense of the conference by forcing myself to write about it. In doing this, I’m reminded of the distinction Michel-Rolph Trouillot draws between the fact and the narrative of history, between “what happened” and “that which is said to have happened.” In this post, I’m firmly trafficking in the latter, as I try to weave together a bunch of events which may only share temporal or spatial proximity. But let’s get into it and see what threads can be pulled together!