|
Want to read the other news?
BACK TO NEWS & EVENTS > |
New York Chapter NewsSubmitted by Tony White / posted: 16 December 2005The spring and summer months were a busy and exciting period for the ARLIS/New York chapter. Since February, local chapter members have had the opportunity to attend seven programs through the month of August. The first major spring event was held in celebration of the installation of Christo and Jeanne Claude's Gates in Central Park. On opening day, Saturday, February 12, the Thomas J. Watson Library of the Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted a reception for a small group of visiting colleagues from the ARLIS/New England chapter. Over 70 people turned out for this celebration. Shortly after the reception began, several members went to the roof to view the Gates, however, the view was not as brilliant as hoped, confirming Christo and Jeanne Claude's opinion that the Gates were best viewed from street level. Nonetheless, guests received a warm welcome from members of the ARLIS/New York Chapter and a good time was had by all. On March 23, over fifty ARLIS/NY members visited Strand Books, located at Broadway and 12th Street. This venerable New York City bookstore was originally founded in 1927. A reception was held on the new second floor expansion, recently completed in the fall of 2004. Fred Bass, the son of founder Benjamin Bass, provided a wonderful introduction to the history of the bookstore. Richard Lilly, the head of the Art Department, followed with a brief discussion of the changes in art publishing over the years. A lively question and answer period followed. The program was followed by a complimentary reception. About twenty ARLIS/NY members journeyed to Artists Space in Soho on April 20. The executive director, Barbara Hunt, and her staff welcomed our group and encouraged members to tour the galleries and view three exhibitions: Model Modernisms in the main gallery, paintings by Sari Carel in the project room, and an installation by nARCHITECTS called Party Wall. Ms. Hunt discussed the history of Artists Space, founded in 1972, and its development as an alternative contemporary art space. She also discussed the significance of the Irving Sandler Artists Files, one of the largest artists registry of digital images and slides in the country. The Artists Files registry is heavily used by local, national, and international curators! On April 26, ARLIS/NY members met at the Douglas Dillon Board Room of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to hear about JSTOR's inclusion of art and art history journals in its collections. Heidi McGregor, director of publisher relations at JSTOR, discussed the collection development policy in areas of art and art history. After a discussion about the history of JSTOR, Heidi provided additional details on the Arts & Sciences III Collection. Following a question and answer session, a reception was hosted in the museum's Thomas J. Watson Library. Chapter members met at the offices of Distributed Art Publishers (D.A.P.) on May 15. Sharon Gallagher, founder and director, introduced us to the history of this amazing art publishing business and she discussed the development of their distribution system. Currently D.A.P. distributes materials from over 200 publishers--large and small, foreign and domestic. In addition, D.A.P. is involved as a publisher itself, and a co-publisher too. This creates opportunities for experimental projects such as artists' books, artist-writer collaborations, and category-defying publications to get published and distributed. On July 14, members attended an amazing reception held at Knoedler & Company. This program was arranged by Edye Weissler, Knoedler's librarian; Faith Pleasanton, board member of ARLIS/NY, and Ann Freedman, president of Knoedler & Company. Chapter members were treated to an opening reception for the current exhibition, "Mark Di Suvero: Indoors," which consisted of nine indoor-kinetic sculptures and works on paper. Each piece of sculpture was made of moving components and viewers were encouraged to interact with each piece. During a tour of the library, Mr. Di Suvero spoke to assembled members and confided that his daughter dreamed of growing up to be a librarian! On August 22, over fifty chapter members gathered at the International Center of Photography (ICP) for a tour of the exhibition, "The Open Book: A History of the Photographic Book From 1878 to the Present," led by the curator, Christopher Phillips. A generous reception was hosted by Deborah Donahue, librarian, and the ICP. The exhibition was produced by Hasselblad Center, Gothenburg, Sweden, in cooperation with Arctic Paper and included 130 books. Highlights of the exhibition included a complete set of Ed Ruscha's artists' books; a complete set of Noyobushi Araki?s photo-copy books; Madonna's Sex-?one of the most successfully sold books; El Lissitzsky's My Paris; William Klein's books on Moscow, New York City, Tokyo, and Rome; and a complete set of Hans Peter Feldman's miniature artists' books. The traveling exhibition is currently at the National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen, from January 13 to March 19, 2006. Top of Page |