Grateful Dead Archive Receives $100,000 Challenge Grant    

Loyal UCSC Supporters Challenge Fans to Step Up

If one measure of an educational institution is its alumni support, then UC Santa Cruz is fortunate indeed. For years, two local Santa Cruz residents—one of them a UCSC alumnus—have been among the most generous, helping with a wide array of campus programs, causes, and efforts. Even more unusual,  these two donors have remained stubbornly anonymous.  “We have always recognized that UCSC has a special role in the UC system, and it’s been our pleasure to help foster and protect that identity,” they commented recently. “But the focus needs to be on the University, not the donor.” As stalwart supporters of a variety of efforts, these philanthropists have provided tremendous support to the University’s mission, but their vision is far broader than that of many traditional patrons of the arts: with a genuine curiosity about all aspects of the University’s work, they have a keen understanding of how the disparate parts that make up UCSC combine to create the uniqueness of this cutting-edge campus.

Nowhere has that vision been more apparent than in their new-found interest in the Grateful Dead Archive, housed in McHenry Library’s Special Collections department. When they were recently asked what new UCSC endeavor had piqued their interest, they immediately mentioned the Archive. But when they met with Grateful Dead Archivist Nicholas Meriwether, he had no idea that this would lead to a gift. “We’re not fans,” they explained, “but we definitely understand the significance of the phenomenon, and the importance of the Archive, both in scholarly and in purely cultural terms.”

Those were themes that emerged in conversations between Meriwether and the donors, and after the first meeting, they told the archivist that he had his publication budget—a generous personal gift that made possible the printing of the first volume of the Archive’s peer-reviewed scholarly journal, Dead Studies.

But the donors' real creativity came in the form of a challenge grant. “Our goal with philanthropy is not only to fund worthy but neglected or vulnerable initiatives, but also to raise awareness,” they explained. “The Dead Archive offers immense promise, but the costs of achieving that promise are steep.”  Their challenge will match all money raised through April 2012 at a three to one ratio, up to $100,000, which will support the Archive in a number of vital ways.

“The Dead Archive is a major cultural asset that offers a window into issues in our nation’s history that are increasingly at the forefront of scholarly inquiry,” Meriwether noted. “But the challenge of building and curating this kind of archive is enormous.” For UCSC to accept that challenge is very much in keeping with Santa Cruz’s heritage of traditional excellence applied in innovative and untraditional ways—and, as Meriwether emphasizes, entirely in keeping with the model of the band as well. “After all, the Dead were always about excellence, regardless of convention.”

Please help us. Every three dollars donated will be matched by a dollar from the Challenge Grant. Together, we can truly raise the Dead at UC Santa Cruz … and make history.

Your Dollars at Work

Your contribution:

• Preserves the several hundred linear feet of the Archive
• Digitizes tickets, posters, photographs, fan mail, business papers and more
• Creates the database that makes finding objects and information possible
• Pays for performing, recording, and transcribing interviews 
• Supports the Archive's mission to acquire and catalog materials, create exhibits, and sponsor publications, both online and in print