|
ARTifacts The Newsletter of The Art Libraries Society of North
America, Southeast Chapter January 2003 |
Notes
from the President | News from the
Membership | Historic Emory Volume
Finds Its Way Home |
18th
Annual LoPresti Award Winners | ARLIS/SE
South Regional Representative Report | Minutes from Asheville
|
Join ARLIS/Southeast | Submission deadline
Notes from the President
by Roberto C. Ferrari,
2002 President, ARLIS/SE
Greetings, Chapter Members!
From November 7 to 10, 2002, ARLIS/SE met for our annual conference in
Asheville, North Carolina. Special commendations go out to Moira Steven and her
planning committee for the fantastic job they did. We had a record attendance
of 45 registrants! We were fortunate that North Carolina had a late fall, so we
were treated to beautiful panoramic views of the mountains covered in autumn
leaves and exceptionally sunny weather. Asheville is an exciting little city
that, despite its small population, has some great surprises in terms of art
galleries and architectural wonders.
We visited the Biltmore Estate, the largest privately owned home in the
United States (owned by the descendants of the Vanderbilt family), and had a
unique opportunity to visit their archives and have a special tour "behind
the red rope" of George Vanderbilt's private library of 23,000 books. We
also were given a guided tour of the historic arts and crafts style Grove Park
Inn and the Biltmore Industries arts and crafts workshops and galleries, and
went on a historical walking tour of the city. Michael McCue spoke to us on the
art world of Tryon, North Carolina, and Frank Thomson spoke on issues related
to archiving. ARLIS/SE members Lee Sorensen (Duke), Sarah McCleskey (Clemson),
and Rachel Kuhn (NCSU) also gave excellent presentations on image databases
being utilized at their institutions. We must extend a special thanks to Helen
Wykle and the University of North Carolina–Asheville Ramsey Library for the use
of their facilities for our speakers and for providing refreshments and
hospitality while there.
At our business meeting, we held elections for our new officers and made
special appointments. At the end of our business meeting, we presented our
annual LoPresti Awards for art book publishing in the South.
It has been a pleasure serving as your president for this year 2002. Things
couldn't have run as smoothly as they did without the assistance of the rest of
the board. I would especially like to thank Kathleen List for being an
exemplary Secretary/Treasurer, and Sarah McCleskey for being a superb
webmaster.
See all of you in Baltimore at the ARLIS/NA conference in March 2003. And
don't forget about our next ARLIS/SE conference, jointly held with ARLIS/
Texas-Mexico in New Orleans in November 2003.
From Sarah McCleskey, Gunnin Architecture Library, Clemson
University:
I am pleased to announce that Sarah Legins joined the staff of the
Gunnin Architectural Library at Clemson University on September 23, 2002, as
the Visual Resources/Reference Librarian. Many of you met Sarah at the recent
conference. Sarah's education and work experience (and winning personality)
made her a perfect candidate for the position.
Sarah was an art history major at Bowdoin College. She recently received
degrees from Pratt Institute in library science and art history, where she took
a course in art librarianship from our ARLIS/NA colleague Paul Glassman. Her
thesis examined the libraries designed by Alvar Aalto in their aesthetic and
social contexts. During her graduate study, she interned for the library of
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, the New York School of Interior Design
Library and Visual Resources Collection, Special Collections and Archives at
Brooklyn College, and the library at Christie's Education.
Prior to pursuing graduate studies, Sarah worked at several fine-art
photograph agencies in New York, where she organized, researched, and licensed
images to publishers and advertising clients.
I am pleased to welcome her to Clemson University and to the ARLIS/SE
Chapter!
In May, CU Libraries staff made a library-wide trip to the University of
Tennessee libraries. After a general tour the afternoon we arrived, we met the
following morning with "counterparts" in the libraries there. Phyllis
Pivorun and I were led on a whirlwind tour of the school of architecture by
Dean Marleen Davis. We were particularly interested to see their Image Center,
similar to our Printing Output Facility with services in plotting, printing,
and scanning.
As I may have reported earlier, I received a grant to develop a database
using the Madison DID product. To get an idea of how the product works in
action, Phyllis Pivorun and I traveled to East Carolina University in
Greenville, North Carolina (a beta site for the software), to meet with
librarians and Kelly Adams, the Media Center Director, who served as the
implementation team. Kelly gave us a great introduction to the database
product, and we are now in the first stages of implementation. On the way back
from ECU, we stopped by NCSU to see fellow Southeast chapter members Karen
DeWitt and Rachel Kuhn in the Design Library. They were able to give us some
valuable information about their slide digitization policies and procedures.
Eliza Robertson was named Acting Director of the Library of the
National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park, N.C., in August. This
follows her seven years there as reference and interlibrary loan librarian. The
National Humanities Center is an independent not-for-profit center for advanced
study in the humanities and supports the scholarship of forty Fellows each
year.
From Patricia Thompson, Sloane Art Library, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill:
While on a trip to Spain, I briefly visited Jorge Garcia Oria, librarian at
the Prado Library in Madrid (thanks to an introduction from Lee Sorensen-Jorge
had visited Duke in their exchange program a few years ago.) The Prado Library
is a small (30,000 approximately) curatorial library, located in a building
behind the Prado. A new building is in the works, designed by noted architect
Rafael Moneo. The project will incorporate an ancient cloister.
I also visited the Biblioteca (really a museum, although I imagine scholars
have access to the library for research) in the Escorial, where the books are
shelved textblock out, to "breathe"—part of the original Herrera
design!
Jim Findlay notes that the Bienes Center's next exhibition will be Modernism
for the Masses: Artist-Designed Postcards from the Collection of Anthony
Guneratne, January 15-May 15, 2003. An illustrated catalog with an essay by
Anthony Guneratne will be published to accompany the exhibition.
Historic Emory Volume Finds Its Way Home
Again
by Sandra J. Still, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Emory University
A long-missing volume containing the original minutes of the Few Society for
the period February 7, 1852, through February 16, 1861, has been returned to
the Emory Archives, filling a gap in Emory history from 150 years ago. The Few
Society was one of the two literary societies that dominated the cultural and
social life of Emory College throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. The archives holds approximately thirty other volumes of handwritten
Few Society minutes and records, but this original volume was missing from the
archives' holdings. Coincidentally, this volume was lent temporarily to the
Emory Archives for microfilming in the 1960s, but we were not able to retain it
at that time.
So how did this long-lost volume find its way home again? It's a story of
serendipity, good will, and just plain luck.
Sandra Still, who works with the library's collection management team, was
asked by Emily Katt, the Managing Director for Georgia of the Corporate Trust
Group at First Union National Bank, for advice in preserving and placing
historic documents that had to be removed from a vault formerly belonging to
the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company in Augusta and that had been acquired
by First Union. Inside the vault, under layers of dust, were old ledger books
recording certificates of stock, certificates of deposit, registered bonds,
transfers, and minutes of meetings. There were also canceled stock and bond
certificates, letters, cancellation devices, and bank seals, some dating to the
1840s.
With the help of Cary Wilkins, Librarian/Archivist at the Morris Museum of Art
in Augusta, Sandra was put in touch with Gordon Blaker, Director of Curatorial
Services at the Augusta Museum of History. Mr. Blaker was very enthusiastic
about receiving the materials as a donation from First Union National Bank for
the museum's permanent collection. Sandra helped in sorting the material and
transporting it to the museum.
Realizing Sandra's Emory connection, Mr. Blaker showed Sandra the Few
Society volume held by the museum. When she assured him that Emory would very
much like to have this missing volume to complete its collection, he graciously
returned it to Emory. It has now joined the other original volumes from the Few
Society in the Emory Archives as a result of the generosity of Mr. Blaker and
the Augusta Museum of History, who believe historic documents should return to
their rightful home.
University Archivist Ginger Cain noted, "The nineteenth century records
from old Emory College are remarkably complete, and we are delighted to have
this original volume to add to those records. This particular volume covers a
very interesting time period leading up to the temporary closing of the college
in November of 1861. The topics debated in the years documented by this volume
range from literary to economic and from political to philosophical, and
include the election of judges (1852), the building of the Pacific Railroad
(1853), the admission of Kansas as a slave state (1856), the Puritans'
treatment of North American Indians (1858), capital punishment (1860), and the
justification of lying (1861)."
18th Annual LoPresti Award Winners
Winners of the 18th Annual Mary Ellen LoPresti Publication Awards were
announced during the ARLIS/SE Chapter meeting held in Asheville, North
Carolina, on November 9, 2002.
The Lo Presti Awards Committee members were Tom Caswell, University of
Florida (Chair); Ann Lindell, University of Florida; Ellen Anderson, University
of Central Florida; and Allen Novak, Ringling School of Art and Design.
The winners are:
The Ceramic Glaze Handbook: Materials, Techniques, Formulas, by Mark
Burleson. Asheville, N.C.: Lark Books, 2001. (LoPresti Award Winner for
Excellence in Art Book Publishing).
This well-designed handbook covers the historical and technical aspects of
ceramic glaze. Of particular note is the fine color photography depicting the
entire chronology of the process from choosing raw materials through mixing,
application, firing, and the finished piece. The author provides an illustrated
chapter of glaze formulas, a glossary of glaze terminology, and appendices
dealing with chemical compounds and additional resources for the interested
reader.
Let It Shine: Self-Taught Art from the T. Marshall Hahn Collection,
by Lynne E. Spriggs, et al. Atlanta, Ga.: High Museum of Art, Distributed by
the University Press of Mississippi, 2001. (LoPresti Award Winner for
Excellence in Art Book Publishing).
A catalog of an exhibition held from June 23 to September 2, 2001,
celebrating a remarkable collection that focuses on twentieth-century
self-taught art from the American South. Three lengthy and scholarly essays
cover reflections of collector Marshall Hahn, insights into the work of the
major artists in the group, and a descriptive chronology of the evolution of
Southern folk art from the 1930s through the 1990s. The second half of the book
is a catalog of beautiful color plates with substantial information about each
entry. Notes, references, a checklist, artists' biographies, and an index
complete this notable volume.
Michelangelo: Drawings and Other Treasures from the Casa Buonarroti,
Florence, by Pina Ragionieri. Atlanta, Ga.: High Museum of Art, 2001.
(LoPresti Award Winner for Excellence in Art Book Publishing).
A beautifully illustrated and highly annotated exhibition catalog of a rare
showing of drawings and other personal treasures from the family home of
Michelangelo. The exhibition premiered at the High Museum in the summer of 2001
and was the first time many of these sketches and personal artifacts had been
seen outside of Florence. Included in the catalog are superb reproductions of
two-dozen rare sketches and studies Michelangelo did for the Sistine Chapel and
Medici tombs, showing some of the workings and re-workings he did in red and
black pencil and brown watercolors. Each of the works that were exhibited has a
page or two of scholarly discussion along with detailed footnotes.
ARLIS/SE South Regional Representative
Report
by Laura Schwartz, Fine Arts Library, University of Texas–Austin
I am so glad to hear that the meeting of ARLIS/SE was such a success! I wish
I could have been with you all.
As most of you know, I became South Regional Representative when Paula
Hardin was forced to step down because she moved out of the region. I took over
responsibilities in April and since have been to Baltimore in June for the
Conference Planning Advisory Committee meeting and to New York in August for
the Mid-Year board meeting.
A quick note about my status as South Regional Representative: I have been
asked to fulfill a full two-year term, which I will plan to do. I will be
bringing the chapter request to have an allotted meeting time during the annual
meeting with me to the pre-conference board meeting in Baltimore. Speaking of
Baltimore . . .
As many of you know, the ARLIS/NA annual meeting is March 20-26, 2003, at
the Wyndham Baltimore Inner Harbor. The registration form is now available
online. The hotel is lovely. It is in a terrific location-walking distance to
the Inner Harbor as well as several neighborhoods and plenty of eateries. The
hotel prices have gone up a bit; the room rates are set at the following:
Single: $153; Double: $163; Triple: $173; Quad: $193.
The special events should be terrific. Friday night is movie night. There
will be three documentaries on Baltimore shown: Little Castles, The Screen
Painters, and Divine Trash. Saturday before the Welcome Party, there
will be an Elvis lecture by Dr. Gary Vikan. The convocation will be at Johns
Hopkins, the guest speaker is artist Joyce Scott, and the reception will be at
the Baltimore Museum of Art. Tuesday night there will be a Poe Party to be held
at Westminster Hall, a Gothic-style church with a burial ground holding the
graves of Edgar Allan Poe and his wife. The event will feature tours of the
graveyard and catacombs, as well as food and libations. And the closing plenary
speaker will be Camille Paglia, noted author and cultural critic.
Tours include Row Houses, Cast Iron Architecture, the American Visionary Art
Museum, Fell's Point Ghost Walk, Bolton Hill, Federal Hill, to name a few.
Workshops include Looking at Pictures: How to Identify Illustrations in Books,
Book Structures and Bookbinding Techniques, Descriptive and Subject Cataloging
for Art Materials, How Books Fall Apart and What You Can Do About It, Effective
Library Surveys: Creating, Administering, and Analyzing, and a disaster
preparedness workshop. There will be great sessions as well. If you have any
questions about the conference, please let me know.
The Executive Board met in New York in August at the Bard Graduate Center on
the Upper West Side. For the most part, we took care of standard society
business like the budget, conference planning decisions, renewing the contract
for the management company, and society document revisions (policy manual and
chapter success book).
The most significant accomplishment at the meeting was the beginning of the
organizational restructuring of the society. Daniel addressed three major areas
of concern:
A few standing committees were
dissolved, a few ad hoc committees were made standing, and some committees were
turned into task forces with very specific charges. If anyone has specific
questions about our decisions regarding committees, please let me know.
Furthermore, due to lack of interest and waning participation and membership,
the Indigenous Art Round Table and the Public Library Division were dissolved.
Our goal is to make the society
work better for all of you. We hope this streamlining and refocusing strategy
makes the society more effective and efficient in meeting the needs of the
membership and our profession.
Looking forward to seeing you in
Baltimore!
Minutes
from ARLIS/SE Annual Conference Business Meeting
November 9, 2002, Renaissance Asheville Hotel, Asheville, North Carolina
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ARTifacts
Next Submission
Deadline:
May 2, 2003
Please send newsletter contributions to:
Cary Wilkins
Morris Museum of Art
1 Tenth St.
Augusta, GA 30901
Phone: 706-828-3801
Fax: 706-724-7612
wcary@themorris.org
ARTifacts is published twice a year by the Southeast
Chapter of the Art Libraries Society of North America.