Melisande Charles Media Collection Care Project.

MN Media Arts is proud to announce that a MNHS Legacy Grant has been awarded for the Melisande Charles Media Collection Care Project. Melisande Charles was an accomplished video artist, arts administrator and a pioneering woman in the Minnesota Arts Community. Before passing in September 2017 at age 86, we conducted several interviews with Melisande discussing her work and cultural history legacy. Special thanks to Craig Sinard, Tom Adair and Mark Stanley for their contributions in capturing these important video interviews.  

Melisande Charles, 2016 

“I'm having a great adventure you know,  I mean everyone's got to die… you know that's eventual.  I just want to know that everything is in its place when I die and that I will take this time to finish what I have not finished. To just let it go, so those were all the decisions that you had to make, but I had the luxury of doing that… somebody that has a sudden heart attack and goes to the hospital and doesn't come out, or they just go in a car crashes… but I get to explore my own life, because I've had a wonderful life”  

The new project will build on earlier efforts to preserve her media collection spearheaded by friend and Twin Cities Media Producer, Craig Sinard. Our media conversion efforts were additionally supported by contributed media conversion service providers. Special thanks to The Keep, Saving Tape, and Gregg Kubera of HyperOpic Media.

Our new collection care efforts will focus on finalizing the visual inventory, updating the digital media asset management plan, metadata data schema, reconnecting the asset ID#’s between the analog and previously converted digital files, forecasting future digital conversion plans and creating a media collection finding aid.

One of MN Media Arts’ future project goals is to secure funding in 2024, to start the concept development phase for a more in-depth Melisande Charles documentary incorporating interview footage with her work examples. As collection managers, we will also be contacting other program producers and libraries for licensing rights and potential inclusion in this new project. 

Melisande Charles with the Sandin Image Processor, a mid 70's video synthesizer

This project's Collection Finding Aid is now available on our website.
URL  https://mnmediaarts.org/projects/mcharles/index-mc-fa.html

This project has been financed in part with funds provided by the State of Minnesota from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the Minnesota Historical Society.