Collaborative Stewardship

Improves browsing and search functionality on the Archive of Our Own by organizing and standardizing tags, including adjusting canonical “No Fandom” tags to enhance consistency and usability for users.

Operates Fanlore, a wiki dedicated to documenting and preserving the history of fanworks and fan communities, with 100% uptime over the past 90 days. In 2024, added over 5,000 new pages and 163,000 edits, created 21,496 new user accounts, and upgraded to MediaWiki 1.39 for improved stability and functionality.

Operates the Archive of Our Own (AO3), a non-profit, non-commercial platform hosting over 18 million transformative fanworks across multiple media types, built on open-source software developed and maintained by the organization. Ensures 100% platform uptime and provides technical support, abuse reporting, and incident resolution for users.

Organizes public events and online activities to celebrate milestones and promote participation, including themed bingo, special site skins for AO3, the annual International Fanworks Day, and the Fandom Friendships Challenge co-hosted with Communications' Fanhackers.

Preserves endangered fan-created content by rescuing and archiving at-risk fan sites and fanzines, including database-driven archives and hand-coded HTML sites over twenty years old, through the Open Doors initiative.

Provides legal defense and advocacy to protect transformative fanworks from commercial exploitation and legal threats, educates fans about legal developments affecting fandom, and participates in coalition efforts such as opposing the NO FAKES Act of 2026 due to concerns about misuse of takedown systems.

Produces and publishes Transformative Works and Cultures, an international, peer-reviewed academic journal focused on transformative works and fan communities, releasing three issues annually including special editions on topics such as "Fandoms and Platforms" and "Centering Blackness in Fan Studies."

Translates organizational content—including site pages, news posts, FAQs, and support emails—from English into multiple languages to increase global accessibility, coordinated through a volunteer team of over 200 members.

Provides comprehensive conservation and restoration treatments for paintings, frames, murals, works on paper, photographic materials, and other art artifacts, serving museums, private collectors, universities, religious institutions, and cultural organizations. Treatments include surface cleaning, varnish removal, canvas lining, inpainting, structural repairs, mold remediation, and preservation framing, with documented before-and-after results.

Provides training and professional development opportunities in art conservation through workshops, lab tours, lectures, and internship programs to support the next generation of conservators and allied professionals.

Conducts and publishes original research in art conservation, including technical investigations of artworks and treatment methodologies, with contributions to peer-reviewed journals such as Topics in Photographic Preservation and participation in professional conferences and field exchanges.

Offers public education, cultural stewardship, and community enrichment through lectures, workshops, lab tours, open houses, and outreach initiatives to promote awareness of art conservation and preservation. Hosts institutional tours and public events, such as a 50th Anniversary Open House with approximately 150 attendees.

Fosters an interdisciplinary community of practice by engaging leaders from major artist foundations (e.g., Nancy Graves, Peter Hujar), estate executors, and cultural institutions in advisory and governance roles to strengthen field-wide legacy preservation capacity.

Performs in-depth analysis of legal and accounting requirements for artist estates, reviews templates used by existing foundations and trusts, and studies the long-term sustainability of multi-artist legacy sites to inform best practices and implementation strategies.

Hosts artist round-tables, classes, and panel discussions to educate artists and professionals on legacy preservation practices, including data collection, cataloging, conservation, provenance, and documentation. Programming is offered at CPAL’s physical facility and through public events.

Designs and implements scalable, shared legacy platforms using an economy of scale model to support the preservation and management of multiple artists’ works and archives, informed by conference data and field research.

Operates a 10,000 sq. ft. facility at 50 West Street in Lower Manhattan, secured under an 11-year lease starting in spring 2025, serving as a national center for legacy preservation with intake protocols, educational programming, and community engagement.

Organizes and hosts multi-day annual conferences focused on the representation, preservation, and sustainability of artists' legacies, featuring panel discussions, keynote addresses, and educational content. The 2024 and 2025 conferences were held over three days each, with full transcripts and recordings published and sold as resources.