Harlem Stage at 30. Weaving together Harlem’s past, present and future.

I recently took a meeting with Harlem Stage around the planning for their 30th anniversary.

Harlem Stage has been one of the nation’s leading arts organizations devoted to the creation and development of new works by performing artists of color.

And they’re a fixture for the artistic community in Harlem.

According to their website,

Harlem Stage is a performing arts center that celebrates and perpetuates the unique and diverse artistic legacy of Harlem and the indelible impression it has made on American culture. We provide opportunity, commissioning and support for artists of color, make performances accessible to all audiences, and introduce children to the rich diversity, excitement and inspiration of the performing arts.

Located on Convent Avenue at 135th street, Harlem Center is a diamond in the rough.

With programming in music, dance, theater, film (like Weightless showing March 14th), education, and family, Harlem Stage has something for everyone.

Rich Medina threw down at Harlem Stage!

Last year, Harlem Stage hosted Rich Medina, twice, bringing his unique music style uptown for Harlem residents and HS patrons to enjoy.

The meeting I took today, was about one of Harlem Stage’s current challenges: how to properly convert thirty years of content, photographs, videos, audio recordings, posters, brochures and flyers, and make that content accessible to staff and patrons alike.

With the 30th anniversary gala quickly approaching (May 21, 2012), Harlem Stage is rapidly moving into the digital age.

They’ve been gearing up to bring 30 years’ worth of archival content to life, making it’s rich history available for the masses, to search, share, and enjoy, in a dynamic and interactive form.

We’re one of a number of experts being asked to help Harlem Stage craft a solution to bring this project to fruition.

And we spent much of our meeting discussing the nuts and bolts around properly digitizing, tagging, preserving/storing, and distributing/sharing Harlem Stage’s voluminous archived content.

We also talked about the opportunities that exist for Harlem Stage to make optimal use of that content once it’s ripped and tagged.

Optimally, we’ve impressed the powers that be, and demonstrated that we know what we’re doing.

At the very least, I hope that we were able to expand their understanding of what’s possible.

I, for one, am excited about the potential of working with them, and I’ll definitely keep you posted on our progress!