Annual Report (2000)
12 December 2000
Walter Gegner, Department Head
Art/Music/Video
Minneapolis Public Library
300 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis MN 55401
(612) 630-6332
e-mail: wgegner@mpls.lib.mn.us
Walter Gegner, chair; Jill Vetter, acting secretary/treasurer; Rosemary Furtak, past chair
Description/Membership:
ARLIS/TC has 21 members representing art libraries in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The chapter met four times this year at various locations throughout the metropolitan area.
Summary of Meetings:
Ten ARLIS/TC members met January 18th at the Perpich Center for Arts Education in Golden Valley, where Jim Marshall, Director of the Learning Resource Center, provided us with a tour of the facility. PCAE is the only arts high school in the state of Minnesota. Established in 1985 by the Minnesota Legislature, the Center has provided public education centered in the arts to junior and senior high school students for over a decade. ARLIS members, Jim Marshall and Jeanne Iverson, staff the Learning Resource Center which includes 12,000 catalogued titles, videotapes, curriculum materials. LRC is an innovative arts library that is open to residents of Minnesota as well as the 300 students attending PCAE. After our orientation in the library we then toured the impressive PCAE campus including classrooms, performance spaces, and art studios.
Twelve ARLIS/TC members next met on February 24th at The Archie Givens Sr. Collection of African American Literature. Recently appointed curator, Kathryn M. Neal, provided us with a history of the Givens collection and a chance to view some of the wonderful items in it. Neal explained that The Givens Collection is one of the richest collections of African American literature, biography, social science, and art known to exist. It contains over 6,000 books, pamphlets, manuscripts, letters, and ephemera produced during a span of over 200 years, from the late eighteenth century to the present. One of the collection's special strengths is the Harlem Renaissance era of the 1920s, including works by James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and others who made their time and place a watershed in African American literature and the arts.
Our next meeting was May 20th, where six members gathered at the new Open Book building for a behind-the-scenes preview of the new facility. Located in a renovated warehouse, Open Book is a truly innovative non-profit facility combining three literary institutions: Minnesota Center for Book Arts, The Loft Literary Center, and Milkweed Editions. Peggy Korsmo-Kennon, executive director of Minnesota Center for Book Arts, gave us a wonderful tour of MCBA, which includes12,000 square feet of space dedicated to letterpress printing, hand bookbinding and papermaking. In addition to studio space, MCBA provides classes and workshops for people interested in creating books as well as a gallery for exhibiting artist books. Peggy then showed us the rest of the building highlighting some of its architectural details such as the floor-to-ceiling windowpanes hinged to resemble an open book and the spiral staircase designed by artist Karen Wirth which was inspired by a book being taken apart at the spine.
Our last meeting of the year took place October 24th at the College of Visual Arts, St. Paul where twelve members met with CVA Librarian Kathy Heuer. Kathy provided us with an informative description of the library followed by a tour of the campus including the beautiful Summit Avenue mansion and the art gallery. Founded in 1924, the College of Visual Arts is a private, accredited, four year college of art and design offering Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in graphic design, illustration, photography and fine arts. The current enrollment is around 300 and continues to grow.
Treasurer's Report:
Balance 12/08/99 = $265.44
Balance 12/12/00 = $312.19
Income 12/12/00 = $046.75 Expenses
12/12/00 = $ 0.00