Partners

Western University’s leadership in research on photography is evident in its diverse courses on the subject, and in the active role that the Photography Studies Working Group plays in bringing together graduate students and faculty to develop new research in this area. Moreover, the university’s dedication to the public humanities, its emphasis on community engagement, its location in SW Ontario offers a prime base for collecting from the diverse communities in this region, and its well regarded programs in video-making and the digital humanities, make it the ideal institution to host this project.

The Royal Ontario Museum is a non-profit cultural institution and is among the world’s leading museums of natural history and world cultures. ROM’s participation in this project is part of its commitment to public outreach, and to preserving nationally important materials in its collections. As a Partner in The Family Camera Network, ROM collects a material archive that will be preserved as part of the Museum’s permanent collection. Moreover, in its capacity as an agency of the Government of Ontario, ROM holds all of its collections “in trust for the people of Ontario.”

The ArQuives: Canada's LGBTQ2+ Archives is a non-profit organization that preserves and makes accessible the largest independent LGBTQ2+ archive in the world, focusing on the collection of material with Canadian content. They bring to the project their extensive connections to queer and trans communities throughout Canada. The ArQuives oversees collecting and archiving of physical materials relating to queer families and experiences of migration.

Ryerson University’s Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management Program is unique and internationally renowned. This program successfully places its graduates as archivists in the world’s top museums. FPPCM brings to the project qualified MA students, whose training is enhanced through internships on digitizing and cataloguing collected materials.

Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival is a non-profit organization that organizes one of Canada’s largest cultural events, attracting over 1.8 million visitors every year. In 2017 and 2018, the Festival spotlighted two feature exhibitions organized by The Family Camera Network.

Yale University is an educational institution that brings to this partnership its technical expertise in the Digital and Public Humanities, and its research strengths under the auspices of its long-running Photographic Memory Workshop (PMW), an incubator for cutting edge research in photography studies.