Ray Anne and others -
Funny you should mention this. The Museum Archives Section of the Society
of American Archivists (SAA) has made efforts to include contemporary art
institutions (collectors, curators, presenters, creators) in their work as
robustly as other disciplines (fine arts, historical, scientific museums).
I think, however, the challenge may be in getting even new-ish institutions
to consider their fifteen-year history as vital and worthy of specific
thought and planning. Records from new constructions, exhibits,
publications, reorganizations, development campaigns, events, will all make
up the really nifty historical stuff that, 85 years from now (when
MoCA-Kalamazoo is celebrating its centennial), people will really want. I
think the REALLY big challenge will be - nearly universal, I realize - that
the younger institutions will be having to deal with more CAD/CAM plans
from the new building construction, Betamax tapes of that 1980 performance
piece by that Swedish group, the email contracts and correspondence of
decision-making, digital photos of the monumental sculpture on the North
terrace, for examples. Luckily, there's help out there (SAA, mentioned
above). /end of didactic rant/
More to the question, I think of, locally, MassMoCA, the DeCordova Museum
and Sculpture Park and Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art. The ICA is
(I don't know about the others), like Cincinnati's CAC, older than it looks
(est'd 1936). I think that's another interesting question: of the
Contemporary Arts institutions NOT founded in the last twenty years, how
many harken back to the earlier days of Dadaism, the Avant Garde, and the
Modern?
(*Is* there a MoCA-Kalamazoo? That wasn't meant as a snobbish larf at
Kalamazoo's expense, it's just a fun name to type. I suppose I could've
used Oshkosh or Woonsocket...)
Anthony Reed, Archivist
Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site
Brookline, Massachusetts
http://www.nps.gov/frla
The Olmsted Research Guide Online (ORGO): http://www.rediscov.com/olmsted
[Due to the upcoming construction and building repair project at Olmsted
National Historic Site, the Olmsted Archives will be closed for several
months starting November 1, 2004. At this time there may be a delay of
several days or longer in response to research requests. Currently no new
research appointments are being scheduled and copy services will not be
available after October 30.]
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