Exhibiting at the 3rd Annual Archives Bazaar
Just a little in advance of UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage (27 October), we participated in the 3rd Annual L.A. Archives Bazaar, hosted at the Davidson Conference Center at USC. The Bazaar is a one-day gathering of local archives, special collections libraries, historical societies, authors, filmmakers, and other folks interested in the history and culture of greater L.A. — a town that, contrary to common belief, has plenty of both.
It was well worth crossing into “enemy territory” (UCLA and USC are crosstown rivals) to be a part of this event. It’s the first time we’ve been able to exhibited at the Archives Bazaar — space always fills up quickly for this popular event.
Yes, you read that right — I used the words “archive” and “popular” in the same sentence. USC was a new location for the Bazaar, as the previous space — The Huntington Library — proved too small for both the exhibitors and the crowds of attendees. All expectations were for a much larger crowd to see this year’s 65 organizations and a variety of presenters of local lore, some well known.
The place was hopping from before 10 am (the official start time of the Bazaar) until at least 4:30 PM.
Our main reasons for participating were to connect with other members of the local archival community and to raise awareness about the Ethnomusicology Archive and the unique kinds of collections we offer. We definitely drew a lot of attention with our videos — selected from our collection of local materials and projected on the wall behind us (hey, we’re a media archive, it’s what we do).
