Culture Keepers: Preserving Local Heritage Through Multimedia

Honoring the past. Empowering the present. Inspiring the future.

In a rapidly changing world, cultural heritage is at risk of being forgotten — especially in communities facing displacement, poverty, or globalization. At the PERETZ FOUNDATION, we believe that preserving local traditions is not just about memory — it’s about identity, dignity, and continuity.

Through our Culture Keepers initiative, we use multimedia storytelling to safeguard oral histories, folk art, music, rituals, and ancestral knowledge. We empower youth, elders, and artists to document their heritage and share it with the world — through film, photography, audio, and digital archives.

Program Overview: Culture Keepers

Preserving heritage. Empowering storytellers. Building cultural bridges.

The Culture Keepers program by the PERETZ FOUNDATION is a multimedia-driven initiative that empowers communities to preserve and celebrate their local heritage through storytelling, technology, and intergenerational collaboration. In regions where oral traditions, folk art, and ancestral knowledge risk being lost, we provide the tools, training, and platforms to ensure these treasures are documented, shared, and honored.

This program is rooted in the belief that culture is a living force — and that every community deserves the chance to protect its past while shaping its future.

🎥 Program Components

3. Mobile Recording Units

For communities without access to technology, we deploy mobile kits and facilitators to capture heritage in real time.

• Includes cameras, microphones, lighting, and translation support
• Ideal for documenting festivals, rituals, and endangered languages
• Content is archived and shared with local and global audiences

4. Public Exhibitions & Cultural Events

We curate multimedia showcases that celebrate the work of local storytellers and artists.

• Events include film screenings, photo galleries, live performances, and panel discussions
• Held in community centers, museums, and outdoor spaces
• Designed to foster pride, dialogue, and intergenerational connection

5. Educational Toolkits & Curriculum Integration

We develop bilingual resources for schools and cultural institutions to teach heritage preservation and media literacy.

• Includes lesson plans, activity guides, and digital archives
• Supports educators in integrating local culture into classrooms
• Encourages youth to see themselves as culture keepers

When cultural heritage institutions (CHIs) like the SMK openly share their public domain collections in the digital environment, their mission to make heritage available to all really comes alive. Open heritage can prompt curiosity, unlock creativity, spark imagination, spur artistic experimentation, and nurture the contemporary art scene. It allows artists, creators, designers and creative entrepreneurs to have a fresh take on our shared heritage. Open heritage is essential if we want people to be able to interrogate humanity’s cultural record, participate in cultural life, and enjoy the arts without barriers and on equitable terms.

Europeana’s GIF IT UP annual competition is another great example of creative remixing and storytelling made possible by open heritage. Every year in October, people from around the globe create new GIFs from openly licensed heritage material and share them with the world.

U.S. Partnerships & Inspiration

A Story of Impact: The Voices of Tameslouht

In the village of Tameslouht, just outside Marrakesh, elders feared their Amazigh songs and stories would vanish with time. Through our Culture Keepers program, local youth were trained to record interviews, film traditional dances, and digitize family archives.

One participant, Leila, age 17, shared:

“I didn’t know our stories mattered. Now I see them on screen, and I feel proud. I feel connected.”

The project culminated in a public screening attended by over 200 villagers — a celebration of heritage, healing, and hope.

How You Can Help

Your donation helps us preserve endangered traditions and empower communities to tell their own stories.

Ways to Give:

• $25 provides a recording kit for one youth
• $100 sponsors a multimedia workshop in a rural village
• $500 funds a public exhibition or screening event

You can also:

• Volunteer as a media mentor or translator
• Partner with us as a cultural institution or tech sponsor
• Share this page to amplify our mission