In July 2005 , the Archives, begun when the Institute was founded in 1944, were declared to be of outstanding historical and cultural interest by the Sovrintendenza Archivistica per l' Umbria, and are therefore subject to particular control with the purpose of guaranteeing the proper conservation of the material and making it accessible for study and research. The earliest documents are those that bear witness to its beginnings, such as Renato Bonelli's hand-written “Proposal for the creation of a historical artistic institution of Orvieto” and the first draft of the “Statutes and Regulations”.

In addition to the principal documentary material concerning all the activities carried out by the Institute, the archives also have two other interesting sections: “Amici della Musica” and the Pericle Perali photographic fund.

The “Amici della Musica” section, dedicated to the famous musician Alessandro Casagrande, was begun in the 1950s, when the then president of the Institute, Angelo Della Massea, upon the advice of the pianist Carlo Zecchi bought a grand piano. This was the beginning of a series of concerts that continued to the end of the 1990s. This part of the documentary material is interesting not only with regards to the photographs of the above mentioned concerts, but also for the curricula and brochures sent by musicians from almost everywhere in the world who hoped to perform in one of the concerts promoted by the Section.

The Pericle Perali photographic fund consists of thousands of photographic plates, made and collected by the scholar from the early 1900s up to the 1920s. Most of them portray various aspects of life in Orvieto, making them a particularly important source for the study of local history.

On the whole the materials in the archives are in good condition, although the older papers have yellowed and become more fragile with age. Some show signs of oxidation and tears due to the incorrect placement of the documents in their containers.

The principal problem to date is that of the imminent danger of deterioration of the audio and photographic documents, as well as the photographic plates. Not only are they in need of particular preservation tactics, but they should also be digitized to make sure none of the data is lost, at least until the advent of other more advanced techniques.

In addition, the archive needs to be computerized, putting all the information in a telematic network to make the documentary information accessible faster and to a larger public. Perhaps the possibility of computerization may be possible thanks to the introduction of the data collected in databases created as part of a broader project for the valorization of the archive patrimony in our Region promoted by the Sovrintendenza archivistica per l'Umbria.

Germana Graziani, currently member of the ISAO board, has been active in cataloguing the archive documents, and upon which she based her thesis, the first devoted to the Institute.