#art libraries

Meet Ashley, a graduate student at Indiana University! She’s the first of our featured photos taken at the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) conference in New York back in February.

Part of being an Archivist is staying current with the current literature and practices in the archival field at large. To make sure I stay up to date with the work that my fellow Archivists undertake I attend conferences and participate in our professional organizations. This helps the #bkmarchives connect with colleagues and spread the word about our amazing collections.

Most recently I traveled to Mexico City to attend the International Council on Archives Annual Conference. The theme was Archivos, Ciudadanía e Interculturalismo (Archives, Citizenship and Interculturalism). I was interested in this conference because, although I’m involved in the American archives realm, I do not have much experience with practices in other countries (except for visiting the National Archives of Bermuda when I was on vacation).

The conference featured an impressive array of speakers. I was most excited to see Professor Anna Maria Guasch give her keynote address Arte, archivo y exposición: ‘Otra

Historia’ del arte de los siglos XX y XXI (Art, Archives and Exposition: “Another History” of 20th and 21st Century Art). Guasch gave a magnificent overview of the theoretical investigation into archives (Foucault, Derrida, Benjamin) as well as artists who use the archive as their conceptual conceit. I was shocked at how few of the artists she used as examples were women. This reminded me of Linda Nochlin’s Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? published in 1971. As a feminist, an archivist, and an art historian I began to think of the institutional practices that have lead to the exclusion of women. As Nochlin points out my question shouldn’t be “have there been no great women artists who have used the archive as a concept and framework for their practice?,” but “what are the power dynamics and institutional structures in place that have not allowed for women artists work to be featured and recognized?” 

Working at the Brooklyn Museum which has the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art I am constantly thinking about how oppression is intersectional and the politics of representation. So I thought I would share our Feminist Art Base, and link to the work of one of my favorite artists, Martha Rosler, who has explored and activated the concept of the archive in her work. 

I would also like to invite artists to come do research at the Brooklyn Museum Archives. Hopefully someone will produce work inspired by our Archives that will one day be presented at an international conference on archives!

Migration Now: A Print Portfolio of Handmade Prints Addressing Migrant Issues from Justseeds and CultureStrike

Jenny Maryland Institute College of Art Digital Initiatives Librarian Founder of We Here

Brieanna Graduate Student  State University of New York-Albany

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZHhlwoy9Yc)

'The card catalog is not dead yet at the Met!