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Thanks to all members who attended our chapter meeting during the recent national conference in New York. The minutes from our meeting are available in this newsletter, but I would just like to highlight a few items of particular interest that came up.
I want to especially thank Lee Sorensen for agreeing to step into his current leadership role; I admit that the two resignations of vice-presidents were difficult for me, and Lee's dedication to our chapter's success will make his leadership particularly meaningful during his tenure.
I spoke at the chapter meeting about our collective commitment to hosting the national conference in Atlanta in 2007. I recognize that I spoke strongly about this and perhaps was "preaching to the choir," but it will be increasingly important for us to focus on the Atlanta conference, both local arrangements and programming, during our chapter meetings leading up to the big event!
And speaking of our chapter meetings, we should all look forward to our fall 2004 meeting planned for Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Lee Sorensen and Martine Sherrill are doing a great job in planning for an exciting meeting there, and I hope many of you will plan to join us.
Some other issues that have come up: We are in discussion about splitting the position of Secretary/Treasurer into two separate positions; we will investigate this and likely vote on a change in bylaws at the Winston-Salem meeting.
I am in the process of developing special funding requests from ARLIS/NA for 2005. I will request $250 (the maximum) for honoraria and other allowable expenses for the conference to be held in Saint Petersburg, Florida, in the fall of 2005 (graciously hosted by Tom Caswell and Ann Lindell). Since we are allowed to request up to $500 per year, and after examining our annual expenses, I am going to also request funding to support the LoPresti Award postage, stationery, and certificates. Once again, thanks to all who were able to attend the mid-year chapter meeting, and I look forward to seeing you in Winston-Salem.
From Ellen Patton Anderson, University of Central Florida Libraries, Orlando:
I have retired from the University of Central Florida as of May 5. I have really enjoyed my ARLIS meetings and activities and will especially miss my friends in the Southeast Chapter. I am very fortunate to be able to retire a bit early, so I'm looking forward to reviving my art studio and working on some other projects. My husband and I plan to relocate to the Asheville, North Carolina, area within the next year. (Could the ARLIS/SE 2002 meeting have had something to do with this choice?!) The new art librarian at UCF will be Lyn Case. The Rare Books Librarian position that oversees the UCF artists' books collection will be advertised soon.
From Roberto C. Ferrari, Wimberly Library, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton:
Sherman Clarke, New York University Libraries, and I co-moderated a panel session entitled "The Queer Art World," which focused on historical and contemporary trends in gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer art. Speakers included Ernesto Pujol (Brooklyn-based artist), Dr. Maura Reilly (Curator for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, and art historian), and Barbara Ann Levy (gallery owner). I presented an historical overview of works from the queer art canon and demonstrated the diversity of what constitutes "queer art," while Sherman afterwards led discussion topics among the panelists and audience members.
I have co-authored with John Cutrone an article on the Jaffe Books as Aesthetic Objects Collection at Florida Atlantic University, published in the spring 2004 issue of Art Documentation. The article is the first major publication to discuss the collection's history, public programming, and cataloging system, and to provide examples of works. Chapter members who attended the 2001 regional meeting will recall touring the collection and meeting John, Curator for the Jaffe Collection.
In October 2004, ground will break at FAU for the expansion of the main library building. Included will be a brand new facility for the Jaffe Collection, which will more than triple its current size and include space for workshops and a state-of-the-art gallery exhibition display area. A grand re-opening of the collection is anticipated for fall 2005, but visitors may still schedule an appointment to view the collection during construction by contacting the FAU Libraries Special Collections Department at 561-297-3787.
From Ann Lindell, University of Florida Libraries, Gainesville:
I gave a presentation, "Beyond the Parthenon and Frank Lloyd Wright: How to Introduce Non-majors to Architectural Information," at the annual conference of the Association of Architecture School Librarians, Miami Beach, Florida, March 19, 2004.
From Patricia T. Thompson, Sloan Art Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:
Three students from the University of North Carolina's School of Information and Library Science (UNC SILS) were admitted to the M.A. program in art history for the first year of the new dual degree program in library and information science and art history. The SILS student group AMLISS (Art and Museum Library and Information Student Society) has initiated series of talks with professionals, including Pat Thompson, Sloane Art Library; J. J. Bauer, Visual Resources Library; Stephen Fletcher, head of UNC Photographic Archives; and Natalia Lonchyna, North Carolina Museum of Art.
I pursued my research on artisan-educator Henrietta Gardner Macy (1854–1927) in Venice in late October but missed the conference in New Orleans as a result. I worked in the Fondazione Cini, the Marciana, and the Querini-Stampalia; photographed locations where Macy lived and worked; and found and interviewed one elderly person who remembered her. I will continue my research at the V&A Glass and Art Gallery, at Duke's Special Collections (fortuitously!), and in Boston.
As a newly appointed member of the ARLIS/ NA Research Awards Committee, Ann Lindell would like to encourage ARLIS/SE members to consider applying for these awards. There are grants available for works in progress as well as awards of excellence for published print and electronic works. Chapter members Roberto Ferrari and Sarah McCleskey are both recent recipients of research awards.
Deadlines for this year have not yet been posted, but in the past it has been early October. For more information, see the guidelines on the ARLIS/NA Awards and Honors web page: http://www.arlisna.org/index__953.html. Ann will post information about this year's application process on the listserv when it is available.
Sandra Still and I raced through the Met's galleries and out the front steps to catch a bus down Manhattan Island. We got off at Soho and walked across Broadway to an abandoned storefront with a neighboring, inconspicuous black door. We pushed the button marked number 9, and Natalie Edgar buzzed us in and called down the old, Otis elevator. When Sandra and I stepped off the elevator, we were transformed back into a New York artist studio from the 1950s and 1960s. Natalie's paintings lined the walls, and Philip Pavia's sculptures were scattered about on drop-cloth-covered tables. We went back to a time when art and ideas flourished and New York first reigned as the center of the cultural world.
This spring, Emory purchased the Philip Pavia and Natalie Edgar Archive of American Abstract Expressionist Art, which consists of records of the 8th Street Club (1948–1955); original essays, lectures, and manifestoes submitted to Philip's It Is magazine; and papers from the 23rd Street Workshop Club.
The birth of abstract expressionism is documented in this archive through original writings from Elaine de Kooning, Thomas Hess, Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline, Robert Rauschenberg, Philip Guston, Dore Ashton, Fairfield Porter, Ad Reinhardt, Harold Rosenberg, Irving Sandler, Hans Hofmann, John Cage, and Allan Kaprow.
Philip Pavia, one of the artists that met informally at the Waldorf Cafeteria, formalized the group into "The Club," or the 8th Street Club, which he ran from 1948 to 1955. Philip kept the rosters and organized the panel discussions. After the club disbanded, Philip published six issues of It Is: A Magazine for Abstract Art. The archive contains all the material published in It Is from 1955 until 1965: approximately one thousand pages, along with design and layout experiments, and two hundred fifty pages of submitted but unpublished texts. In 1965, members of the 8th Street Club approached Philip and asked him to form another group. The resulting 23rd Street Workshop Club existed until 1970 and included fifty-four events documented in this archive.
Sandra and I had a wonderful time pursuing all the material that will soon travel to Emory's Special Collections Library. But the highlight of our visit was talking with Philip Pavia and his wife Natalie Edgar about their lives, their art, and their philosophies. This April, at 92, Philip was awarded a Guggenheim Award for a series of recent sculptures.
Acquiring this archive provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring primary material on abstract expressionism to Emory, Atlanta, and the Southeast.
Along with colleague Raquel Von Cogell, ARLIS Southeast Chapter members David Faulds and I co-curated the exhibit Works by Amos P. Kennedy, Jr.: Bookbuilder, Graphic Artist, and All-Around Gadfly in the Robert W. Woodruff Library's Schatten Gallery at Emory University. The official dates were February 5–March 5, 2004, though the exhibit is still up.
We began discussing and planning for the exhibit in late September 2003, selected the artists' books and other materials in October, and had several meetings at the exhibit cases with the materials in November. In January, we met with Emory's conservator and learned how to frame the sixteen posters in Uni-Frames so that we could display them above the curved cases in the gallery.
We chose the posters based on subject matter, color, and variety in graphic design. Among them were: Proof Type Mask, James Moody in Concert, Equality Is a Special Privilege for Blacks, Mr. Tee's Ladies Night, Okra Festival, Rooster Days, and Go Tell It on de Mountain. In the cases, we displayed works that demonstrated Kennedy's range from miniature books to The Large Mask Book, which is the third in a series of four books containing the poem "We Wear the Mask," by Paul Laurence Dunbar, and that demonstrated Kennedy's layering of text images.
One of the more dramatic items displayed was The Bible Book, which is composed of a burned Bible in a box covered with cut-up text from the scripture, representing one of the sixty-six African American churches burned in the South. Also included was a series of postcards from an installation piece memorializing sixty-two children, fourteen years old or younger, slain in Chicago in 1993.
We designed labels, a title panel for the exhibit, and a program for Amos's talk on February 5, "Put the Message in the Hands of the People and Move On!: A Tirade by Amos P. Kennedy, Jr.," which was a huge success. Amos told about his own background and how, after majoring in math, he became a computer programmer for almost a decade before he discovered his fascination with printing. He stressed the importance of doing what you love.
Since we always try to work with the Atlanta College of Art when artists are willing to talk with the students there, Moira Steven arranged a class visit the following day. If you want to showcase an artist whose work and talks are always stimulating, Amos P. Kennedy, Jr., would be an excellent choice.
I am happy to report to all chapters in the South region of ARLIS/NA on initiatives that the society is undertaking this year. Under the leadership of Jeanne Brown, the Executive Board is diligently making progress on several projects. These initiatives are all large-scale and multifaceted but essential in making the society efficient and effective. Here is a list of some of the projects we are working on:
I am confident that between the post-conference Executive Board meeting in New York and the pre-conference Executive Board meeting in Houston, the society will have accomplished these and other initiatives. One of the goals of society officers is to make ARLIS/NA the most relevant organization in your professional life; please help us by providing feedback. If you have questions about any or all of these initiatives, please let me know. We need to hear your ideas and comments.
Regarding future conferences, the Conference Planning Advisory Committee meeting is June 17–18, 2004. The program is shaping up, and the charm and uniqueness of Houston as well as its strength in art and architecture will be a pleasant surprise to members who have not had the good fortune of visiting.
The mid-year Executive Board meeting will be July 26–27 in Calgary. The board will be making a trip to Banff on July 25. I look forward to the visit and reporting to you on the strength of Banff as our 2006 conference location.
Again, as your South Regional Representative, please feel free to get in touch to discuss these issues or others that you feel are important to the society and the profession.
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