Spring Meeting 2001: Meeting Program
"Archives and the Arts"
May 4-5, 2001
Dartmouth College, Hanover NH
Registration: 8:30-9:30
Concurrent Sessions: 9:30-10:15
Session 1: DOCUMENTING COMMUNITIES: FRENCH CANADIANS IN NEW ENGLAND
Presenters: Harold Lacadie, Co-president, the French Island Project, Old Town ME; Roger Lawrence, Founder, American Canadian Genealogical Society, Merrimack NH
Chair: Doug Stark, Librarian and Archivist, Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield MA
Over the last 200 years French Canadians have left an indelible mark on the New England landscape. This session will focus on the history of French Canadians in New England, ways to document French Canadians, current research in the field and how archivists might use this material. Roger Lawrence, founder of the American Canadian Genealogical Society, will discuss genealogical research using archival material. Harold Lacadie will talk about documenting French Canadians in Old Town ME.
Session 2: ANIMATION
Presenter: Raymond Frogner, Associate University Archivist, University of Alberta
Chair: Stephen Yearl, Systems and Digital Resources Archivist, Yale University Library, New Haven CT
Animation, perhaps more than other contemporary art forms, has embraced the use of computers. Computer animation has become an integral part of many movies, replacing models and expensive stunts with digitally-generated action sequences, allowing the creation of scenes not previously possible. While the animation-added movies are often captured to film, the problem remains of how to archive the digital originals, and the derivatives presented in non-film media.
Business Meeting: 10:30-11:00
Concurrent Sessions: 11:15-12:00
Session 3: COOPERATIVE PROJECTS: MUSEUM ARCHIVES
Presenter: Rick Biddle, Consultant, Schultz & Williams, Inc., Philadelphia PA
Chair: Kelly Cobble, Museum Specialist, Adams National Historical Park, Quincy MA
The Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College, the Atwater Kent Museum, the Athenaeum of Philadelphia and the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts are purchasing a building for collections storage, managed condominium fashion. The project consultant will describe the inception, mechanics and realization of this collaboration [tentative description].
Sessions 4: HISTORICAL INSPIRATIONS: THE USE OF
PERFORMING ARTS ARCHIVES BY CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS
Presenter: Martha S. LoMonaco, Associate Professor, Department of Visual and Performing Arts, Fairfield University
Chair: Martha Foley, Consulting Archivist, Brooklyn NY
Dr. Marti LoMonaco, Director of the Theatre Program at Fairfield University, will describe her use of the Joseph Papp/New York Shakespeare Festival Archive at the New York Library for the Performing Arts, as the principal inspiration for her 1999 revival of the rock musical HAIR, a part of the University's "60s Project." Through a melding of selected archival material and slides from her production, she will demonstrate how she used historical artifacts to create contemporary art.
Session 5: FINE ART AND PERFORMANCE SCHOOL
ARCHIVES
Presenters: Stephen E. Cohen, Archivist, Yale University Library, New Haven CT; Andrew Martinez, Archivist, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence RI; Jean Morrow, Director of Libraries, New England Conservatory of Music, Boston
The Yale School of Drama's archives, dating from 1920, include records of theatrical productions, development and alumni relations and the drama school's deans. The Rhode Island School of Design Archives document the school since its founding in 1877 as well as the collections and exhibitions of the RISD Museum. The archives of the New England Conservatory of Music consist of print material (e.g., papers, music manuscripts and first editions of prominent composers active in the Boston area from the end of the 19th to the first quarter of the 20th century), and a sound archives. The collections of these institutions will be the focus of this session.
Lunch: 12:15-1:15
Concurrent Sessions: 1:30-2:15
Session 6: NON-TRADITIONAL USES OF ARCHIVES: "SAINTS, SINNERS AND SISTERS"
Presenter: Renee Bucciarelli, Associate Artistic Director, Kings County Shakespeare Company; Director/Developer, The Shakespeare Playground TM; Actor
Chair: Jackie McKiernan, Librarian, Stowe Center, Hartford CT
This session shares the process of creating a play based on archival research. The dramatist's work-in-progress is drawn from the personal and public writings of author Harriet Beecher Stowe, educator Catharine Beecher and woman suffragist Isabella Beecher Hooker, and explores the relationship between historical events and their personal lives.
Session 7: COLLABORATION: OR WHO'S EXHIBIT IS THIS?
Presenters: Audrey Ambrosino, Public Information Officer, Jo Hills, Librarian and Chris Wirth, Museum Specialist, Lowell (MA) National Historical Park; Chuck Caragianes, Teacher, Lowell Middlesex Academy Charter School
Chair: Anthony Reed, Archivist, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, Brookline MA
Lowell National Park has been involved in a joint exhibit program with Lowell Middlesex Academy Charter School (a public high school for students who have dropped out or are at risk of dropping out of traditional schools). Exhibit topics have included the recreational activities of Lowell's youth and the city's retail businesses in the last century. The exhibits' curator, an Academy teacher and possibly students will join other involved Park staff in a discussion of the structure of collaboration and the use of archival resources with a focus on research skill development.
Session 8: FOR YOUR EYES ONLY: TELEVISION NEWSFILM AND
VIDEOTAPE COLLECTIONS
Presenters: Mary Ide, WGBH Educational, Boston; David Weiss, Northeast Historic Film, Bucksport ME
Chair: Doug Stark, Librarian and Archivist, Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield MA
The past two decades have witnessed a proliferation of television news coverage resulting in the accumulation of local television newsfilm and videotape collections. The questions that archivists now face are how can we administer these collections and what value do they have. These questions will be answered with regard to two regional television newsfilm collections. Issues to be discussed include acquisition, arrangement and description, access and preservation. Finally, ways to develop a good relationship with local television stations will be discussed.
Concurrent Sessions: 2:30-3:15
Session 9: ARCHIVES IN ART
Presenter: James M. O'Toole, Associate Professor, Boston College
Chair: Abigail Smith, Archivist, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge MA
Studying the ways in which archival records have been portrayed in the visual arts tells us something important about how those records are perceived by artist and viewer alike. Records and documents are seldom the primary objects of an artist's attention, but they appear in surprising numbers in paintings which are ostensibly "about" something else. Using slides of American paintings, James O'Toole will expand on his recent study in The American Archivist of the role documents play in portraits and genre paintings.
Session 10: THE ARCHIVES OF A PERFORMING ARTS
INSTITUTION
Presenter: Gino Francesconi, Director of Archives and Museum, Carnegie Hall, NYC
Chair: Mollie Keller, Municipal Archivist, Bridgeport CT
The impresario of Carnegie Hall Archives and Museum will chronicle the creation, continuing development and use of the collection of papers and artifacts at one of the world's leading performance halls.
Reception: 3:30-4:30
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