University Community Video Media Documentary

Minnesota Media Arts is seeking support to start a concept treatment and fundraising project documentary.  University Community Video (UCV) was established in 1974 through a collective merger of Minnesota Student Telecommunication Corporation (MSTC) and the West Bank Video Access Center (WBU-VAC) . UCV was a pioneer organization in the community media and "Guerrilla Television" landscape of the 1970's, introducing portable video "portapak" production training and producing the "Changing Channels" series featuring community focused content broadcast on KTCA-TV Channel 2, in St. Paul Minnesota. These innovative programs were one of the earliest examples of a “weekly alternative media broadcast program” in the United States, produced and edited using “portable location video tools” as groundbreaking technology.

In 1979, Craig Sinard produced a insightful documentary about UCV and Changing Channels broadcast series, we hope to utilize some of his footage in our new project.

In the early 1980's, UCV rebranded itself as Intermedia Arts in moving off the U of M campus and expanded into a multi-disciplinary arts organization. University Community Video/Intermedia Arts "Changing Channels Series" Collection (1974-1978). MN Media Arts is continuing to research and define the CC series metadata, broadcast timeline, confirming program titles, length, producer and copyright information.

Our goal is to secure funding to digitize the collection and make it available for research purposes via an online catalog finding aid. Your support will help with these efforts to bring the series out of "deep storage at MNHS" and to start the CC series, other early UCV program series like "Everybody's TV Time" and subsequent Intermedia Arts video programs were donated to the Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS). MNHS currently secures the collection and is also helping to identify additional collection care and conversion funds.