About
The AMIA Pathways Fellowship (APF) is designed to open pathways into careers in audiovisual preservation. Through paid internships, structured mentorship, cohort-based learning, and ongoing alumni support, the program helps break down barriers to entry and provides opportunities for individuals who may not otherwise have access to training or professional networks in the field. By combining hands-on experience with guided mentorship and community-building, APF offers a holistic training experience for those who might otherwise be excluded from traditional professional pipelines.
Since 2022, APF has supported the preservation of audiovisual collections in two ways – by expanding the number of professionals trained to care for and provide access to audiovisual heritage and by expanding the capacity of collecting institutions currently doing this work.
Many community-based collections include audiovisual materials—oral histories, home movies, broadcast recordings, and community media—that are central to understanding the cultural, civic, and artistic life of the myriad communities across the country. However, many of these collections are held at institutions without the resources or staff needed to manage their preservation and access.
APF addresses this gap in two key ways. First, by placing Fellows in internships at host sites, it provides immediate, hands-on support to institutions working to stabilize and preserve at-risk audiovisual materials. Second, the program creates new pathways into the archival field by offering paid internships, cohort-based training, mentorship, and now, extended alumni support, for individuals who might otherwise be excluded due to barriers such as geography, economic hardship, or lack of access to graduate education. Fellows develop practical skills while contributing to meaningful preservation projects at these sites, increasing institutional readiness and improving public access to important humanities collections.
Our 2026 internship partners include the ʻUluʻulu: The Henry Kuʻualoha Giugni Moving Image Archive of Hawaiʻi, UCLA Film and Television Archive, Texas Archive of the Moving Image, Duplitech, and the University of South Carolina’s Moving Image Research Collections (MIRC).
The 2026 AMIA Pathways Fellowship is currently funded through donations from the Carolyn Hauer NxNW Fund, Amy Heller and Dennis Doros, and individual donors. If you are interested in donating to support the Fellowship, please donate here.
The Fellowship is intended for individuals interested in pursuing careers in audiovisual preservation who may not have had access to traditional pathways into the field.
We encourage applications from people who:
Are interested in preserving film, video, recorded sound, and other audiovisual materials
Are interested in working with cultural heritage institutions, community archives, or media collections
You do not need prior experience in audiovisual archiving to apply. The Fellowship is designed to provide training, mentorship, and hands-on experience that help participants develop the skills and networks needed to enter the field.
To participate in the AMIA Pathways Fellowship, applicants must be accepted into a paid internship at one of our partner host sites. Acceptance into the Fellowship program is distinct from acceptance into any individual internship and will occur after internship selections have been made.
Fellowship events begin June, 2026 and will continue weekly through September. Internship start dates are subject to the individual host site schedules. During the fellowship, in addition to the paid internship, fellows participate in weekly online professional development sessions for ten weeks (June – August), are paired with professionals in the field in a remote mentorship program (July – December),
We strongly encourage you to review the information about being a Pathways Fellow (PDF) to have a full view of the program, information about each component, Fellowship calendar, and time commitment.
The 2026 program has been made possible through the support of the Carolyn Hauer NxNW Fund, Amy Heller and Dennis Doros, Louis B. Mayer Foundation, and individual donations.
If you would like to support conference participation for the 2026 cohort, please consider a donation here. If you’re interested in supporting future cohorts, please contact us.
We would like to invite you to become a Pathways partner with your organization providing a paid internship for a Pathways Fellow for our next cohort! Partnering with organizations to provide paid internships is critical in forging pathways in the audiovisual preservation field for people from groups historically underrepresented in the profession. If you’re interested in becoming a Partner for future cohorts, contact us!