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About The Victorian Jazz Archive

 "Proactively Collecting, Archiving & Disseminating Australian Jazz"  

Scope

This not-for-profit Incorporated Association was established to:

  • Collect, exhibit, preserve and store on a permanent basis all material and memorabilia of whatever nature pertaining to jazz music, performed and/or composed by Australian musicians, covering the period from the 1920's through to the present day.

  • Collect and store recordings of jazz produced outside Australia, to be used as a reference source.

                                          

 
 

 

 

History

Victorian Jazz Archive had its genesis in a meeting held in Sydney on June 23, 1996.

Awards  

The Archive received two awards in 2000 for the program entitled "Acetate Action" where a concerted effort to transfer ageing acetate discs to a digital form was successful, and is ongoing. The first was the National Australia Bank Community Link Award for Conservation, whilst the second was the Museums Australia Award for Conservation and Heritage.

In November 2005, the Archive won the Knox Pride Award for Preservation and Conservation organised by the Knox City Council and sponsored by the Bendigo Bank. The Archive won the overall title against seven other winners of all categories on the night.

Individual Awards have been given to our immediate past General Manager, John Kennedy. In 2002 John was awarded the "Volunteer Of The Year in the Museum Industry" by Museums Australia, and in January 2004, he was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for "the preservation of Australian jazz at the Victorian Jazz Archive".

Activities

The Victorian Jazz Archive Inc. (VJA) was formed in October 1996 - specifically to preserve all forms of Australian jazz music and associated memorabilia. VJA is recognised by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) as being part of the national distributed collection of audio-visual material, and is also a member of the Australian Jazz Archive National Council (AJANC).

Part of the Archive's Charter is to provide access to its material to the general public, music students and researchers. This is achieved mostly by the digitisation of sound resources and the photographic collection wherever possible - depending on the condition of the material.

The prime focus of the Archive is to identify, collect, document, and exhibit all types of Australian Jazz recordings, musical instruments, videos, photographs, publications, and historical memorabilia. Details of the Collection are being constantly added to a central  Data Base accessible from the selection tab at the top of this screen.

In addition, the charter of the VJA allows for the collection of overseas material for use and study in the Archive's reference library.