Mission & Activities

Founded in 1971, EAI is a nonprofit resource that fosters the creation, exhibition, distribution and preservation of media art. EAI's core program is the distribution and preservation of a major collection of over 5,000 new and historical video works by artists, supported by public programming, preservation, education, and publication initiatives. EAI works closely with educators, curators, programmers and collectors to facilitate exhibitions, acquisitions and educational uses of media artworks.

The EAI collection spans the mid-1960s to the present and is recognized as one of the most comprehensive video art collections in the world. The works in the collection range from seminal analog videos by pathbreaking artists such as Joan Jonas, Nam June Paik, Ulysses Jenkins, Martha Rosler and Dan Graham, to new digital videos from younger generation artists including Shana Moulton, Cory Arcangel, Sondra Perry, Jacolby Satterwhite, and Maggie Lee. EAI's Artists Media Distribution Service makes the collection available for screenings, exhibitions, and acquisitions to museums, collectors, and educational, arts, and cultural institutions around the world. EAI provides audiences with access to media art, with a parallel commitment to the stewardship and preservation of our collection. EAI also provides an art historical and cultural framework for the collection through extensive online resources, educational initiatives, and Public Programs.

Accessibility is central to EAI’s founding mission, a cornerstone of the organization that we are committed to demonstrating in the content and form of our activities. All public programs are free of charge, and frequently held both in-person and online. In 2021 EAI began an ongoing collaboration with NYU Center for Disability Studies to consider our founding principle of access through the lens of disability justice, introducing programming and institutional best practices addressing the goal of accessibility as a sustainable and ongoing practice.

EAI offers many educational resources in addition to its in-person programs and distribution activities. The EAI Online Catalogue is a comprehensive web resource on the artists and works in the EAI collection, featuring a searchable database and extensive research materials. The EAI Online Resource Guide for Exhibiting, Collecting & Preserving Media Art addresses key issues relating to single-channel video, computer-based art, and media art installations, including best practices, equipment and technical guidelines, case studies, and interviews with media art experts, among other materials. A Kinetic History: The EAI Archives Online provides access to rare materials from EAI's historical archives on the emergent video art movement.

EAI hosts a library of monographs, artist’s books, reference texts, catalogs, and artist ephemera and press materials at our office, available for students and researchers by appointment. EAI's Preservation Program is a pioneering initiative for the conservation and cataloging of works in the media art collection. Over the past decades we have restored many important early video works that would otherwise not be accessible.