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A painting titled 'Blue Trees' by H. Lyman Saÿen, created between 1915 and 1916, displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Blue Trees, 1915-1916, H. Lyman Saÿen, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Our Mission

Curationist Foundation connects people with global cultural resources and perspectives through open knowledge.

Our Story

Since its inception, Curationist Foundation’s mission has been to bring global culture and perspective to the world via digital programming.

2001

Founded as MHz Networks, the organization originated as an American broadcaster and project of the Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation (CPBC).

2013

CPBC established MHz Networks as a nonprofit. MHz Networks carried forward the mission of serving its local American market, the Washington, D.C. metro area, with rich cultural content from around the world.

2015

MHz Networks changed its name to MHz Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, and ended operational ties with the MHz Network.

2018 - 2022

MHz Foundation expanded its reach beyond the Metro DC area to the world via Curationist.org. Designed and built by a team of developers, digital archivists, content experts, academics, writers, and editors, Curationist strives to make global arts, culture, and heritage available to all through a free knowledge platform and website.

2024

MHz Foundation became Curationist Foundation, gaining an updated identity and name that clearly aligns our work with our central project, Curationist. Joining the foundation's name with the Curationist platform clearly articulates the unity of mission and vision we share. Curationist is the nucleus of the Foundation, and our initiatives and future endeavors spring from this core.

Curationist Foundation brings together arts and culture communities to find, share, collaborate and reimagine cultural narratives.

Our Values

  • Inspire: Join others in collaborative global open-access efforts that engage millions of digital assets within the Commons, making the Commons increasingly accessible and manageable.
  • Organize: Galvanize educators, communities, and others to share their expertise and work together to reframe narratives.
  • Educate: Provide high-quality open-access resources and tools for K-12 and higher education professionals and their students.
  • Care: Encourage fearless engagement with critical and rigorous perspectives in art and life by respecting the CARE principles framework of indigenous-centered cultural and data sovereignty.
  • Reciprocate: Remain in conversation with our peers, collaborators, and participants in order to discover and serve mutually beneficial needs and goals.

Our Initiatives

Curationist

A platform to search across institutions, large and small, to find open access digital heritage.

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Curationist Museum Services

Meeting institutions where they are and helping them overcome obstacles to digital sharing.

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Support our cause

Join us in our mission to create a more just and inclusive online world.
Support Curationist Foundation and be a part of our success story.
Ways to support

Our Board

Curationist Foundation’s Board of Directors is composed of people focused on open access and preserving cultural heritage. We are marking a bold path to do more to provide cultural heritage institutions with better digital tools for sharing.

The Board of Directors oversees operations, fundraising, partnerships, and programmatic work to support our projects.

Dr. Manu Samriti Chander

Board Chair

Dr. Manu Samriti Chander, Board Chair
Manu Samriti Chander is Associate Professor of English at Georgetown University. He is the author of Brown Romantics: Poetry and Nationalism in the Global Nineteenth Century and co-editor of the Oxford University Press book series “Race in Nineteenth Century Literature and Culture.” His research has been supported by the Fulbright Program and the National Endowment for the Humanities, among others.

Evelin Heidel

Vice Chair

Evelin Heidel, Vice Chair
Evelin Heidel is currently the Program Director for Wikimedistas de Uruguay. She is a strategist with over a decade of experience working in open access to knowledge, particularly at the intersection of open movements and cultural heritage. She holds a BA in Literature from the University of Buenos Aires, and was a Harvard Library Innovation Lab Summer Fellow in 2018 and an International Visiting Scholar at the American University, Washington College of Law in 2019. She helped with setting up the Open GLAM initiative at Creative Commons. Lifelong learner, bookworm, Wikipedia editor, aspiring organic farmer and dog lover.

Jennryn Wetzler

Board Member

Jennryn Wetzler, Board Member
Jennryn Wetzler is the Director of Learning and Training at Creative Commons. At Creative Commons, she has the joy of forming collaborative partnerships around the world; with partners, she develops programs and training to increase open access to knowledge and culture in the public interest. Prior to CC, Jennryn worked at the U.S. Department of State, piloting OER use for public diplomacy and global partnerships. She’s also enjoyed gaining a different perspective of education through studies and international development work in Egypt, Niger, and Thailand. Based in Maryland, Jennryn has a Masters in ‘Ethics, Peace, and Global Affairs’ from American University’s School for International Service.

Kelly Doyle Kim

Board Member

Kelly Doyle Kim, Board Member
Kelly Doyle Kim is an advocate for closing the gender and representation gaps on open sites like Wikipedia and for adoption of open access policies within GLAMs. She was previously the Open Knowledge Coordinator for the newly established Smithsonian American Women's History Museum. Previously, she was the Wikipedian in Residence for Gender Equity at West Virginia University Libraries, the first role focusing exclusively on the gender based gaps on Wikipedia at an academic library in the United States. She has given talks about her work at SXSW, Wikimania, MuseWeb, and others. She is based in Charleston, South Carolina. She recently recorded an episode for the Smithsonian’s podcast, Sidedoor.

Our team

We are a team of artists, educators, critics, archivists, and curious minds who help expand open knowledge about cultural heritage.
Meet the team