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Fall Chapter Meeting at the Clark Art Institute

2017 ARLIS/NA NE & Upstate NY Fall Chapter Meeting 
Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute
Williamstown, MA,
Friday October 13, 2017

9 am – 10 am Refreshments and welcome

10 am – 11 am ARLIS/NA Chapter business meetings (NE and Upstate NY)

11am  – 12:30 Choose one of two gallery tours: looking at prints in the new Print Room with Jay Clarke, Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs; or a walk through the newly installed Decorative Arts galleries with Alexis Goodin, Curatorial Research Associate

12:30 – 2pm Lunch at the Clark’s Cafe 7 with an option to purchase a brown bag lunch and eat al fresco

2 – 4pm View highlights from the Library’s Special Collections. View the permanent collections and stroll the grounds at the Clark

4 – 4:30pm Refreshments and farewell

RSVP by October 2, 2017

Apply now for the Elmar W. Seibel Scholarship!

Applications are due September 20th, 2017.

Please send applications or questions to:

Katie Riel, ARLIS/NA NE Past Chair

kriel@massart.edu


PURPOSE

The purpose of this award is to support and encourage future art librarians by helping to defray student expenses (tuition, professional development, housing, materials, etc.)

QUALIFICATIONS

Applicants must be aspiring art information professionals currently enrolled or accepted into a fully accredited New England school of library and information science.

AWARD

$500 in award funding will be distributed to one applicant during the calendar year. Chapter members have generously contributed to the Seibel Scholarship fund over the years and donations are always welcome.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

Applicants should send a letter describing themselves and their interest in art librarianship, visual resources, and/or cultural heritage with proof of enrollment (course schedule, transcript, etc.) in, or an acceptance letter from, an accredited New England school of library and information science.

Award recipients are required to provide a written account of how they use the Seibel funds to help finance their education and/or professional growth. This account must be submitted to the ARLIS/NA New England Chapter Board no later than one month from the date of award disbursal.

ABOUT

The Elmar W. Seibel Scholarship was established in the summer of 2001 to honor ARLIS/NA New England Chapter Life Member Elmar Seibel, a respected book dealer, bibliographer, curator, and collector, and esteemed friend to art libraries and art librarians regionally, nationally, and internationally. Elmar Seibel is founder and president of Ars Libri Ltd., in Boston, a company that has since 1976 served as a resource for scholars, librarians, collectors, and artists.

Anna’s ARLIS/NA New Orleans Conference Experience

Anna Boutin is the recipient of the 2017 ARLIS/NA National Conference Travel Award.

Read on to learn about Anna’s conference experience…

First, I would like to thank the award committee and the New England Chapter for the wonderful opportunity to attend the New Orleans conference. I had a great time, taking advantage of workshops, conference sessions, and my own independent time in the city to explore and enjoy the gorgeous weather!

I started off my conference attendance at the letterpress printing workshop with fellow attendees and the artist Jessica Peterson at her print shop, The Southern Letter Press. The shop featured a small storefront that Jessica rents out, featuring local, independent artists’ work – I was grateful that I arrived early and had time to peruse because I found some great pieces! The workshop itself was a great experience, as we collectively channeled our feelings about the current state of affairs in our nation into slogans for printing, ultimately picking two that we each had a chance to run through Jessica’s Vandercook Press. The resulting works have been incredibly popular with my colleagues back home, and are on proud display in my office.

My day began on Monday with several sessions, including my favorite of the conference – “When Research Doesn’t Start with a Question: Teaching with the Framework in Art and Architecture Librarianship.” This panel session left me so inspired (and with such great notes!) that I have made a concerted effort since returning to work to champion the Framework in my daily work and instruction sessions. I was grateful to have such an inspiring, albeit short, day so that I could go out and explore all that the city had to offer – not the least of which was the delicious Southern cuisine!

Tuesday’s visual literacy session was jam-packed – I ended up sitting right there on the floor! I was happy to see such a large crowd, however, as visual literacy is an increasingly important topic, and one that I know captivates art librarians. Anna Harper’s comment about images not being respected as sources of information in their own right was particularly relevant, and it’s been prompting me to think more critically of the secondary role that images play in collegiate education and how art librarians can change that. In addition to this and other sessions, I spent quite a good deal of time on Tuesday in between tornado warnings (that aspect was certainly not something this New Englander is used to!) in the Exhibits Hall. We have a small but growing collection of artists’ books at my institution, and I was thrilled to have the time to speak with the knowledgeable vendors and a few other librarians on the topic.

My Wednesday turned out to have a social justice and diversity theme, which was timely. With recent events on nearly everyone’s mind, the New England Chapter spent most of our meeting time discussing activist efforts and what we can do as librarians to ensure that all of our communities are safe and welcomed within and outside the library. The Diversity Forum proved a great opportunity to discuss pressing issues in our workplaces with colleagues from across the country, and I truly enjoyed the panel on critical information literacy. The activities and efforts highlighted by the presenters were informative for my own practice.

Though I ended up having my flight cancelled due to the snowstorm that plagued New England that Thursday, I was grateful to have a final day in New Orleans to spend enjoying the city and reflecting on my conference experience – the extra beignets sure didn’t hurt, either! I am looking forward to next year’s conference in New York City, and all the wonderful opportunities it brings with it. I hope to see you all there!

About Anna: Anna Boutin has a BA in Theatre Performance with minors  Art History and Women’s & Gender Studies from Emmanuel College, as well as an MLIS from the Simmons College School of Library and Information Science. She is currently the Librarian for the School of Architecture + Planning at MIT, and the Treasurer for the New England Chapter of ARLIS/NA.

About the ARLIS/NA New England Chapter Travel Award: The Travel Award is intended to encourage the professional development of ARLIS/NA New England Chapter members by supporting travel to the ARLIS/NA annual conference. Money for this award is generously donated by ARLIS/NA New England Chapter members.

Spring Meeting at Roger Williams University – April 21, 2017

We are excited to announce the agenda for the ARLIS/NA New England Spring Meeting in Bristol, Rhode Island on Friday, April 21, 2017.

RSVP

To RSVP, please fill out this form.

Schedule

Roger Williams University School of Architecture Art and Historic Preservation (SAAHP)

9:00 – 10:00 a.m. 

Gather in the Exhibition Gallery in the SAAHP building for check-in and conversation with coffee, tea and a light breakfast.

10:00 – 11:00 a.m. 

Presentation by Sara A. Butler, Professor of Art and Architectural History

“Amazing Groves:  Landscape and Memory at Bristol’s North and South Farms”

Beginning around 1870, George Rogers Hall, the first American to introduce Japanese trees and shrubs to the U.S. in the nineteenth century, established a groundbreaking collection on his estate in Bristol.  This talk examines the importer’s extraordinary garden and the utility of both his plantings and his memory to his heirs and successors.  Over time, stakeholders engaged variously in preservation, transformation, and veneration of the site, reshaping the landscape as they laid claim to his legacy.

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.  

Chapter business meeting

12:00 – 2:00 p.m.    

Drive from RWU into downtown Bristol.  Enjoy lunch and a chance to explore Bristol on your own.  Please see below for a list of dining choices.

 

Byfield School, Bristol

2:00 – 3:00 p.m. 

Presentation and tour by Michael Rich, Associate Professor of Art and Chairman of Arts in Common.

Just before 2:00 p.m. we will meet at the Byfield School on the corner of Church Street and High Street on the Bristol Town Common.  Professor Rich will talk about the work that Arts in Common is doing, in collaboration with others, to create an arts and culture district in Bristol.  The early nexus of the district is three former public school buildings currently in various stages of renovation and adaptive reuse.  A Providence Journal article from January provides some background on the project.

Additional Information

For additional details, sights around Bristol, and restaurant recommendations, see this document.