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P. Guhathakurta, E.K. Grebel (UCSC), P. Seitzer (U Mich)
We are carrying out an imaging survey of the list of 260 nearby dwarf galaxy candidates from Karachentseva & Karachentsev (1998) with the 2.4-m Hiltner telescope at the MDM Observatory. Galaxies close enough to be resolved into individual stars are subsequently studied with the Low-Resolution Imaging Spectrograph (LRIS) on the 10-m Keck II telescope. A detailed study of the most promising nearby candidates is presented. Preliminary analysis of the data yields estimates of: (1) the central surface brightness, (2) total magnitude, (3) the distance based on the tip of the red giant branch discontinuity in the I-band stellar luminosity function, and (4) the metallicity based on comparison of the shape of the red giant branch in the V-I vs I color-magnitude diagram with globular cluster fiducials.