Applying to MIAP
NYU's Moving Image Archiving and Preservation (MIAP) Master of Arts Program accepts applications until January 15th of each year for Fall admission. We are now accepting applications for Fall 2025. Click the "apply" button below for the link to the application.
For more information about applying, please review our application guidelines and FAQs.
Still have questions? Email tisch.preservation@nyu.edu.
About MIAP
The field of moving image archiving and preservation requires professionals who are prepared to cope with both the transition of older materials to digital formats, and to ensure that 'born-digital' materials being created today can be retrieved 100 years from now.
MIAP provides prospective collection managers and archivists with an international, comprehensive education in the theories, methods, and practices of moving image archiving and preservation. Our curriculum includes courses on moving image conservation and preservation; collection management; metadata standards and application; copyright and legal issues; moving image curatorial work; the cultures of museums, archives, and libraries; and the histories of cinema and television. Students are taught by leading scholars and practitioners in the field.
MIAP combines humanities (the history and context of moving images) with sciences and engineering (the technical processes of how media are created, deteriorate, and can be restored), and ensures constant exposure to real world experiences through class projects and internships. The 64-credit program requires two years of full-time study to complete, including four semesters of coursework, two semester-long internships, and one full-time summer internship.
MIAP trains students in every aspect of moving image preservation, teaching them to handle film and video as well as digital and new media in all types of environments.
MIAP Student
Student Profile
MIAP students come from a broad range of personal, academic, and professional backgrounds. Some are media professionals seeking to refocus their energies on archiving and preservation, while others have worked in an unrelated field or have just completed undergraduate studies. What they share is a commitment to audiovisual preservation and a conviction that moving images carry tremendous value for both current and future audiences--for students, scholars, artists, activists, and members of the public.
MIAP Students
Internships
Internships complement classroom learning by giving MIAP students the chance to practice and develop their skills in professional settings. Internships also allow students to experience a variety of organizational cultures, analyzing how different types of institutions approach the division of responsibilities between staffing roles, day-to-day operations and workflows, user-client relations, financial considerations, and long-term planning.
MIAP students complete two part-time semester internships and one full-time summer internship. Past internship sites have included archives, museums, libraries, film labs, arts and nonprofit organizations, private sector companies, and production entities. Common internship duties include one or more of the following: inventorying and rehousing a collection, cataloging and updating metadata, inspecting and repairing film and video, reformatting media, investigating copyright issues, writing or implementing preservation plans, researching vendor reformatting services, drafting requests for proposals, and supporting requests for external funding for preservation and reformatting activities.
Alumni
Graduates of the program have careers as preservation specialists, archivists, research scholars, and conservators in diverse organizations, including library preservation departments, regional and national archives, digital libraries, media arts organizations, museums, production entities, video distributors, and television stations.
Employers who have hired MIAP graduates include: Academy Film Archive Library of Congress, The United Nations, Museo del Cine, Buenos Aires, Bay Area Video Coalition, Audiovisual Preservation Solutions, The Museum of Modern Art, Carnegie Hall, The Smithsonian Institution, New York Public Library, Northwestern University Libraries, StoryCorps, CNN News Archive, National Film Archives of the Philippines, WGBH, and many more.
MIAP Students
Learn More, Explore, and Follow Us
We encourage prospective students to explore MIAP's latest news, faculty bios, course descriptions & syllabi, internship summaries, student work, and alumni testimonials, and to follow @NYUMIAP on Facebook and Instagram.
Join our MIAP News and Events listserv to receive emails about upcoming MIAP-related events, and subscribe to our newsletter to get news and updates from the program.