Annual Report (2004)
Officers
Anne B. Haas, President
Kathy Ritter, President-Elect
Susan Lewis, Past President
Rachel Beckwith, Secretary/Membership Officer
Susanne Javorski, Treasurer
Adeane Bregman, Listserv Manager
Don Milliken, Webmaster
Chapter Meetings
The first chapter meeting of 2004 was held at the Annual Conference in New York, on Monday, April 19. During this short but very productive meeting, the agenda for the things we hoped to do as a chapter during the rest of the year was set in motion.
This NY meeting might have stood as
our only ‘spring meeting’ but there was a lot of interest in getting together in
New England as well, and there was an immediate suggestion to try to get to
Rhode Island, as we hadn’t been there in a while—Linda Zieper, Update Editor,
suggested we see Blithewold Mansion and it’s gardens, so with the help of Betsy
Peck Learned and Elinor Nacheman, the arrangements were made, and on June 4, the
second spring meeting was held. Tours of the mansion and it’s gardens were in
the morning, lunch was at a wonderful outdoor seafood eatery, with perfect
weather, and the afternoon’s tour of downtown Bristol’s very interesting
architecture, led by Kevin Jordan, an architectural historian who was formerly
on the faculty of Roger Williams University, finished up the day.
In July, the board met at Anne Haas’
house in Yarmouth, Maine, to discuss fall meetings, elections, the treasury, and
some possible new travel or scholarship awards. Present were Susan Lewis, and
Susanne Javorski. We were able to make plans, even though there were only three
of us there, because of the feedback we had from the April and June meetings, so
made plans for two more meetings, one at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and
Research Center, and the other, an ARTstor demonstration to be held at one of
the Boston area art libraries that had purchased ARTstor.
The Mashantucket Pequot meeting was
held Friday November 5, at this impressive new museum of Native American history
and art. We had tours of the library and it’s collections, and of the museum’s
anthropological collections, as well as an exhibit of contemporary art glass. It
was an exceptional day for most of us, and simply emphasized how little most of
us know, or include about native American history and art into our own work in
art history. Susanne Javorski, treasurer, did the local arrangements for this
important meeting.
On December 3, we held an
informational demonstration about ARTstor, at Mass College of Art, thanks to
Rachel Beckwith, secretary, and Paul Dobbs, Interim Library Director at Mass
Art. Barbara Rockenbach, from the ARTstor headquarters, and an assistant, did a
demonstration, and answered a lot of questions from the audience of about 35 New
England members.
Elections and other appointments:
As well as the regular elections for
two of the four major board offices, Anne called for some volunteers for new
managers of both the listserv and the website. Rachel Reznik will be the new listserv
manager, and Christina Jedziniak will be the new website manager. Our thanks to
Adeane Bregman and Don Millikan for their years of service. Linda Zieper
continues to be our Update column editor and our New England Focus editor, with
the gratitude of the chapter.
Membership:
ARLIS/NE membership for 2004 was
100.
Treasurer’s Report:
Susanne Javorski reported that we
have a total of $10,206.81 in our three accounts: $2222.79, in the checking account, $3355.84 in one
CD, and $4628.18 in another CD.
Awards:
The Wolfgang M. Freitag Professional
Development Award was given to Deborah Aframe, Librarian at the Worcester Museum
of Art to assist her in taking a museum certification course.
The Elmar W. Seibel Scholarship was awarded to two recipients this year; Christina Jedziniak, is a student at Simmons, and works at Bennington College. Ursula Murphy is also a student at Simmons.
Issues of importance to the
chapter:
In light of the continued diminished
institutional support for some members to travel to the national conference, the
chapter has started two other smaller awards specifically for this purpose. Each
will be in the amount of $150, and will be awarded based on need.
Carol Graney, the Northeast representative, has told us that we can change the current ineligibility for board members to apply for any of the awards the chapter gives, by a simple change to the by-laws. As there is less and less institutional support for travel, this seems like a good change. We still need to formalize this, and let Carol know, so she can amend the appropriate documents.
Respectfully submitted,
Anne B. Haas
President, New England Chapter, ARLIS/NA, 2004
16 Feb, 2005