The National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC) is a nonprofit association whose membership comprises a diverse mix of organizations and individuals dedicated to a common goal: the support and advocacy of independent film, video, audio and online/multimedia arts.

Collectively, NAMAC's members provide a wide range of services in support of independent media, including education, production, exhibition, distribution, collection-building, preservation, criticism and general advocacy. Our members include media arts centers, production facilities, university-based programs, community technology centers, museums, film festivals, media distributors, film archives, after-school programs, community access TV stations and individuals working in the field. Combined, these organizations serve approximately 400,000 artists and other media professionals nationwide. Please refer to our Member Directory for details.

Download NAMAC's strategic plan. (pdf)

NAMAC was founded in 1980 by an eclectic group of media arts centers that realized they could strengthen their social and cultural impact by working as a united force. Their idea was as bold as it was simple: to create a national organization that would provide support services to its institutional members and advocate for the field as a whole. Since its founding, NAMAC has worked to raise the profile and influence of the media arts on behalf of its ever-expanding membership.

• Strengthen the influence of media arts organizations, making them an integral part of their communities;
• Facilitate the support of independent media artists from all cultural communities and geographic regions;
• Integrate media into all levels of education and advocate for media literacy as an educational goal;
• Promote socially responsible uses of and individual access to current and future media technologies;
• Encourage media arts that are rooted in local communities, as well as those that are global in outlook.

Central to our mission is the conviction that in today's global telecommunications culture, the individual media artist plays an increasingly critical role. Independent media makers working outside the industry establishment and the commercial marketplace have greater freedom to express their personal visions and reflect community realities with honesty and integrity.