Annual Report (2002)
ARLIS/NA International Relations Committee

January-December 2002

Leadership Update

Susana Tejada assumed the role of committee chair effective March 22, 2002.  Irene Puchalski was named the new board liaison to the IRC, while Jeannette Dixon continued to serve ably as IFLA representative.

Membership

The IRC was downsized from a committee of ten to that of eight.  Nonetheless, an infusion of new members—Frances Clymer (Buffalo Bill Historical Center), Kate E. Cunningham-Hendrix (Colorado State University), Jing Liao (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), and Irene Puchalski (University of Toronto)—joined continuing members Jeannette Dixon (Museum of Fine Arts Houston), Renata Guttman (Canadian Centre for Architecture), Beverly-Joy Karno (Howard Karno Books), and Susana Tejada (Albright-Knox Art Gallery) in the important work of the IRC.

Activities

The committee’s proposal to host an International Relations Social at the Baltimore 2003 Conference was approved.  Funding, however, for the social has not yet been secured; fundraising this year has been especially difficult, with some previous sponsors dropping out.  Should funding be made available, the event will serve as a promotional tool to orient and welcome international conference attendees, and more importantly as a means of encouraging their continued membership in the Society.  Much like the New Members Orientation, the social will target a specific segment of conference attendees, including but not limited to international visitors, international travel award winners, IRC mentors, the ARLIS/NA Executive Board, and other committee members—such as the North American Relations, Diversity, and Membership Committees—who also hold a vested interest in forging stronger relationships with the international art library community.

The committee received approval to host a panel session at Baltimore 2003 entitled Nordic Expeditions: Exploring Art Information Resources for Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden.

Renata Guttman continued to update the committee web site: www.cam.org/~renata/irc_top.html

To improve communication among committee members, the chair’s employing institution—the Albright-Knox Art Gallery—served as host to an IRC electronic listserv.

ARLIS/NA Headquarters is now routing international publications from affiliate organizations directly to the IRC chair.

The IRC chair has been in contact with Okwui Enwezor, Artistic Director of Documenta 11, to invite him to participate as a plenary speaker at the ARLIS/NYC 2004 Conference.  Mr. Enwezor has expressed an initial interest in participating at the annual meeting.  Given the meeting’s location, the IRC is in the process of developing a special series of sessions with a transnational theme including, among others, a panel on researching and documenting international fairs and biennials.

Submitted by: Susana Tejada, Chair, ARLIS/NA IRC