This fall, the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York (ART) will be celebrating its 23rd Annual New York Archives Week, October 9th - 15th, 2011. Archives Week events are designed to raise the public’s awareness of the importance of preserving and making accessible our documentary heritage. Activities include a wide range of programming, including lectures, workshops, exhibitions, and tours of repositories, all free and open to the public. 

Archives Week is intended to be a coordinated effort to bring the significance and accomplishments of archives to the public's attention.  Last year, over two dozen institutions in New York City held events or exhibitions relating to archival records. We would like to see similar participation this year and thus urge you and your repositories to plan an Archives Week event. 

Suggested Archives Week activities:

• Hold an open house, highlighting unique materials held by your repository.
• Mount an exhibit using materials from your repository.
• Demonstrate or report on activities/projects supported by grants.
• Ask a researcher to speak on the value of your collections to his/her research.
• Present a film festival using films or videos held by your repository.
• Sponsor lunchtime talks by archivists, historians, and other researchers.
• Organize a walking tour of your repository's neighborhood.

In addition, as part of an effort to draw public attention to Archives Week and highlight the importance of our repositories and collections, ART will sponsor three events: on Tuesday, October 11th we will hold a one day symposium on artists’ records, on the evening of Thursday, October 13th we will honor our colleagues at our Annual Awards Ceremony, and on Saturday, October 15th, the second K-12 Archives Education Institute will take place.

For all other Archives Week events, please complete this form to be submitted for inclusion in the Archivists Round Table Archives Week event calendar. The deadline for submission of the form is Thursday, September 1st.  The form should be emailed to president@nycarchivists.org.

The Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York recognizes the generous sponsorship of Archives Week by MetLife and the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation.

The archives of many institutions contain artists’ records -- documents created by artists that often bear witness to the creative process, as evinced by sketches, doodles, and other notations. Artists’ records differ from other types of records due to their inherent connection to the art object and the art market. In recent years there has been a plethora of symposia and conferences dedicated to artist archives, art history and “the archive,” as well as to the use of archival materials by contemporary artists. While crucial, these investigations have been driven almost entirely by art historians and have not included the perspectives of archivists and special collections librarians. As part of an effort to broaden the discussion surrounding artists’ records, the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York has organized a two day symposium, “Artists’ Records in the Archives,” to be held on October 11th and 12th 2011. Focusing on the perspective of the information professional, this symposium will address how contemporary artists use artists’ records in their work, the significance of artists’ records in archives for scholars and curators, and how archivists and special collections librarians manage artists’ records in their repositories.

Possible topics or areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Artists’ use of other artists’ records

• How archivists manage artists’ records and how this might differ within a museum, estate, gallery, and university setting

• Collecting artists’ records

• Appraisal of artists’ records

• Underdocumented artists and the archives

• Exhibitions and artists’ records

• Artists’ records and the digital environment

• Born digital artists’ records

• Copyright, moral rights, and the artist

• Conversations between archivists, artists, and art historians regarding archives

Date: October 11 - 12, 2011

All individual presentations will be 20 minutes long (10 page paper).

Submissions must include a title, name of author and institutional affiliation, abstract (250 words max), and indication of technological requirements.

Individual papers or entire panel proposals accepted.

A small travel stipend is available. If interested please indicate in the submission.

Deadline for Proposals: Proposals should be emailed to artistsymposium@gmail.com by August 15, 2011.