As a reference librarian at an art museum, I work with a lot of patrons who have inherited or otherwise acquired a piece of art, the artist of which they wish to know more about. In the best-case scenarios, I … Continue reading
During the summer of 2019, I interned at the Frances Mulhall Achilles Library at the Whitney Museum of American Art. For nine weeks, I worked full-time as the library intern and had the special opportunity to get to know the … Continue reading
Once again we hear about the exciting array of material kept in artist files—this time at the St. Louis Public Library. Recently librarians at the SLPL, in a blog titled There’s something amazing in these drawers, shared the surprises a … Continue reading
On September 7, 2017, we celebrated the opening of the exhibition Abstract Expressionism: Looking East from the Far West at the Honolulu Museum of Art (HoMA). The picture above shows one of the boxes returned to the library from the … Continue reading
Members of the ARLIS/NA Artist Files SIG usually work with files about individual artists, but at the New York Public Library’s Picture Collection, artist file material is handled a little differently. Among the array of topics represented in the kaleidoscope … Continue reading
Librarians and archivists often approach collections of donated ephemera with assumptions about their contents and organization. Once processing starts, however, the collection demands we rethink our initial assumptions. Upon its arrival at the NGA Library in 2015, the Evans-Tibbs Collection … Continue reading
Recently the Art Collection at The New York Public Library received several generous donations of ephemeral material for our artist files. Sorting through boxes of catalogues and brochures (and an occasional birthday card or bill), we came across some amazing exhibition announcements. These … Continue reading
So I was giving a tour of the library to the Fort Worth Library’s new director, Manya Shorr, when I stumbled across an anomaly in our artist files collection: a file on Peru-based artist Eduardo Moll. Our collection is peppered … Continue reading
At the American Art and Portrait Gallery (AAPG) Library, we are always turning to our Art and Artist Files for items to highlight the breadth of our collections. This was the case when we decided to find some materials that … Continue reading
Like many librarians, I fetishize the past. My particular obsession is the ‘60s and ‘70s, which inspired a show I organized for the National Gallery of Art library, Companion Pieces: Documenting Concepts, Events, Environments, on view through August 25th [2]. Art movements … Continue reading