Building Audio Preservation Capacities for Georgian Ethnographic Recordings at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire

Abstract

From October 2021 to December 2023, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and the Vano Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatoire (TSC) embarked on a multi-year project to build institutional capacity for preserving and disseminating critically at-risk audio recordings of traditional Georgian music. Funded by the 2021 U.S. Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation, the project “Conservation of Endangered Georgian Traditional Music Recordings at the V. Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatoire, Phase 1” focused on safeguarding more than 200 hours of Georgian musical heritage on endangered media formats, established infrastructure and workflows for specialized media conservation by TSC staff, and ensured continued access to these rich cultural resources for generations to come. Promoted through various televised and streamed channels, this project laid the groundwork for future cultural heritage preservation activities at TSC, strengthening it as a regional leader in this preservation and access work.