New Curators

We don’t mind if curators are humans or machines.

Please note: This program ceased in December 2025.

About the program

The New Curators program aims to find and support curators with different voices, priorities, and points of view as they interrogate and reflect upon this enormous collection. Curation will be a integral piece of keeping this vast collection accessible as we look into the future. 

There’s a ton of curation happening on Flickr already and it’s been that way since it started in 2004. The core features for each Flickr member include:

  • Using tags, descriptions, albums,
  • Adding photos to a map,
  • Groups to share photos around common interests,
  • Galleries to curate other people’s pictures,
  • Contents of EXIF data.

Current project

Possible future projects?

A potential direction, as indicated in our research conducted in 2021, is find more complex historical perspectives and rectify colonial and racist histories. We would also like to support work that addresses potential harms around open content, hopefully supporting the great work happening in initiatives like Local Contexts, Wiki Loves Women, and Whose Knowledge?.

Screenshot of a Google doc (that is the report)

The State of Social Media Archiving

Read our market research on how social media platforms allow their users to download their stuff.

2026: Simplifying Our Strategy

We're making adjustments to our programming and team in the coming months to weather the current storm affecting nonprofits across the US and more broadly.

Three men work in a testing facility. A person in a metallic space suit is suspended horizontally, supported by two others on either side. A grid pattern decorates the background.

Looking back over 2025

Here's a handy compendium of all the stuff we've done this year. Wheee!