Program areas at ARI
Outreach programs: we posted scores of new videos to our youtube channel, which grew to over 94k subscribers in fy2023. Among The new videos were lectures, interviews, and podcasts on topics ranging from history and philosophy to cultural issues and foreign affairs. Our channel views grew significantly this fiscal year, with The mike wallace interview of Ayn Rand reaching an all-time total surpassing one million views. Two major conferences were held: arc-europe, which was held in april 2023 in athens, greece, and The objectivist conference in july 2023 in miami, Florida, which brought hundreds of attendees together from all over The world. In fy2023, ari continued its global outreach expansion in europe, latin america, asia, The middle east, and australia. Ari also sent speakers to address students and general audiences all over The world.
Other: The Ayn Rand archives made further upgrades to our facilities to enhance The protection of ari's archival materials and continued its digitization efforts. We produced two exhibits: a major online exhibit, "blueprints for The fountainhead," featuring more than 200 original documents along with commentary from our archives team, and a physical exhibit at ocon 2023 celebrating The 80th publication anniversary of The fountainhead. We made significant updates to three collections, including a revised shelf inventory, and implemented a collection management system to manage our holdings. We received acquisitions that included items, books, and other materials originally owned by Ayn Rand. The ari estore (estore.aynrand.org) continued to sell books and recordings on Objectivism and related topics. In fy2023, The estore sold hundreds of books, digital courses, and lectures to our customers. Ari has received The highest 4-star rating with charity navigator, positioning ari among The most-trusted nonprofits in The country.
Educational programs:in fy2023, we expanded our free books program substantially, reaching classrooms all around The country in our books for teachers program. Crucially, we have also found an exciting amount of interest from students eager to read Ayn Rand's novels on their own, resulting in exponential growth in demand for our free books for students program. Essay contests continued to be a good means of introducing Rand to new readers, and we saw record participation in our atlas shrugged contest. Students also gained new opportunities to meet our expert faculty through in-person conferences and online events. The Ayn Rand university, our online school of philosophy whose mission is to educate students about Objectivism and to provide them with The intellectual, career, and life guidance they need to flourish, continued to admit and educate growing numbers of students and to expand its faculty and to diversify its curriculum. Many students were supported by scholarships to offset some or all of their tuition. We launched, and had strong participation in, The Ayn Rand university graduate Center, which is an advanced training program that offers instruction to committed students, as well as career guidance, mentoring, and financial assistance. This Center is dedicated to high-potential individuals aiming toward an intellectual career. New ideal, which is ari's official journal, published dozens of articles and podcasts in fy2023, applying Objectivism to explain major issues in The culture and promoting The Institute's other work. The podcasts are weekly livestreams on social media featuring our intellectual team and junior fellows, commenting on topics of relevance to modern times and The works of Ayn Rand. Several new ari campus courses were added to The catalog of on-demand content in fy2023. Ari's recorded course videos received thousands of hours of views across all platforms: website, aru mobile app, and youtube.