News

In late October, 9 CAA members joined Julie Synder and Julianna Oberlin for a tour and photography demonstration and a discussion about their DAM system and image specification.

Julie leads through the great hall exhibit.

Julianne walking us through her photography workflow.

Stepping into the anechoic chamber!!!

There are plenty more pictures here http://bit.ly/2pxLEhe

Were you there?  Add them to the above linked folder! Thank you to our hosts for taking the time to share their work!  Not a member?  Join now!

The Curating and Exhibitions Interest Group hosted a 90-minute webinar on the “Strategies for Seeking Audience Input to Build an Effective Exhibit Lineup” on November 2, 2019, presented by experienced museum exhibit developers Charity Counts and Tricia O’Connor. The webinar introduced different data collection methods, tips and tools that help organizations or libraries in gauging their target audience’s interests in designing and scheduling exhibits. All participants received a workshop toolkit that included read-to-use worksheets, surveys, interview questions, and a calendar for audience research. A recording was shared with the registrants after the event.

On Tuesday October 15th, seven members of the Chicago Area Archivists visited the archives of Paul Natkin, Chicago's premier music photographer.

Paul discussed how he began his career in the 1970s and mentioned some of the musicians and celebrities he has worked with over the years. 

He talked about how he began his relationship with Getty Images ten years ago and illustrated how he scans photographs and the Getty database he uses to upload images and include metadata. 

The event concluded with Paul giving his take on the photography world today and members shared a bit about themselves and the type of work that they do. Thank you Paul for being a fantastic host and welcoming us to your home studio archive and also thank you to all who attended!

If you were present at this event and took photos, please consider sharing and uploading them here.

(Photos taken by Rene Aranzamendez, Jerice Barrios, and Doris Cardenas)

On October 3, 2019, six CAA members joined Columbia College Associate Professor Melissa Potter at the Glass Curtain Gallery for a fascinating, personalized tour of the exhibit "Let's Do It: Twenty-Three Years of Book and Paper."

A few of the beautiful pieces of book and paper art on display at Columbia College's Glass Curtain Gallery. 

Professor Potter, herself a specialist in hand paper making and print making, explained the history of how the exhibit came together and shared anecdotes about some of the pieces in the gallery. You can learn more about the exhibit at the "Let's Do It" web page, and there is still time to see it for yourself; the exhibit is open until October 23.

Associate Professor Melissa Potter and CAA members examine a case containing items from the Columbia College Center for Book and Paper Arts archives.

Professor Potter also talked about how important the archives of the Columbia College Center for Book and Paper Arts was in shaping the exhibit, and how she envisions the collections in the archives as a research resource for future students and artists.

An exhibit case containing materials from the archives

The curator of the exhibit, Jessica Cochran, considered the inclusion of archival materials vital to illustrating the full breadth of the history of the Center of Book and Paper Arts.

Thank you to all who attended this event, and special thanks to Professor Melissa Potter for a wonderful hour of art and education!

If you missed out on this event, don't worry, there are other events planned throughout the year. If you have an event or program you'd like to suggest, please send it to info@chicagoarchivists.org. If you attend a CAA event and have photos to share, please consider uploading them to the CAA Image folder on Google Drive.

The CAA Curating & Exhibitions Interest Group had its second meet-up on September 20, 2019 at the University of Chicago’s Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) with the participation of the Interest Group member, Patti Gibbons, Head of Collection Management at the SCRC and Anne Flannery, Head of Museum Archives at the Oriental Institute. 

The event started with Patti giving an overview of the exhibition gallery and ways of the SCRC incorporates preservation into the gallery design. She talked about the technical aspects of exhibition development, including the features and variety of the display case design, planning schedule, item selection process with curators and other exhibition collaborators, as well as the exhibition publicity and outreach efforts. Anne then shared her role as the curator of Discovery, Collection, Memory: The Oriental Institute at 100 exhibition at the SCRC (opening from September 16 - December 13, 2019) and the notion of archives as  cultural heritage preservation. She talked about the launch and outcomes of the Oriental Institute’s Cultural Heritage Experiment in its first year, and the power of the object-based lending program. Following a slideshow presentation, Anne led the group to tour The Oriental Institute at 100 exhibition and outlined the curatorial process and narrative development in collaboration with Patti and the SCRC. 

A bonus activity was a behind-the-scene tour led by Patti to the Joe and Rita Mansueto Library located adjacent to the SCRC. The group checked out its underground high density storage facility on campus, see the “robots” that store archive materials and books, and the library’s circulation system. The group saw the art installation aeon, a series of translucent image of the Oriental Institute’s artifacts affixing the library’s massive glass dome which is part of the centennial celebration.

Special thanks to Patti for hosting the group! Here are the event snapshots:

Gretchen Neidhardt led a productive discussion on critical cataloging at Beermiscuous on September 10. We shared about our own projects, discussed existing resources on the topic, and talked about actions we can take, from micro-level changes to large-scale projects. Resource list here: Critical Cataloging Resources and Projects

We also discussed continuing resource sharing and discussion via Google Groups. Gretchen has created one here: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/critical-cataloging. All are welcome to view and/or join. (Posts are publicly viewable, but to post your own content, you’ll need to join the group.)

Thanks to all who joined us and thanks to Gretchen for leading!

If you have photos from this event, please feel free to share them here!

About 10 members showed up at the Haymarket Pub and Brewery on September 3rd to discuss current and upcoming projects!

This also gave both groups a chance to meet new people and discuss each groups membership and activities.

Didn't make it to this one!  No worries, we have plenty of events on the horizon!

On Wednesday August 28th, Chicago Area Archivists and Chicago Collections Consortium held a joint genealogy event at the Harold Washington Library. Archivists and collection managers shared rich perspectives from their archival holdings and provided approaches to genealogy research. 

Each panelist works with a different type of collection such as cultural, religious, or medical. Thus their viewpoints on genealogy research centered on these specific areas.   

Pat Bearden, from the International Society of Sons and Daughters of Slave Ancestry, brought a quilt depicting images of formerly enslaved individuals who lived in Chicago.

The event concluded with a Q&A session. Some audience members stayed afterwards to speak to a particular panelist. This event was well-attended so thank you to all who were able to join us! 

If you were present at this event and took photographs, please consider sharing and uploading them here.

(Photos taken by Elise Fariello and Doris Cardenas)

Thank you to everyone who came out to the 3rd Annual Chicago Area Archivists Summer Cookout on Sunday August 25th! It was a beautiful day with lots of great food and a fantastic tour of the Pullman neighborhood. 

An extra special thank you to Andrew and Linda Bullen for opening up their home to us and being wonderful hosts! 

If you attended this event and took photos, please consider sharing and uploading them here. 

CAA Business Archives Group members enjoyed a day at the ballpark on July 25.

On Thursday, July 25th, the Business Archives Group toured Wrigley Field and attended a presentation by Chicago Cubs Manager of Authentics and Archive at the offices of the Cubs. Manager Pat Manaher. Pat discussed the unique nature of a MLB team’s collection and relationships with donors, the team, the league and the public. He also shed light on the interesting collecting policy of a professional team and how a winning (or losing) season affects what and how much is collected. Thank you to all who attended and participated in the conversation!

Members of the CAA Business Archives Group tour the historical displays in the Wrigley Field concourse with Manager of Authentics and Archives, Pat Manaher.

This event was organized by the CAA Business Archives Group. If you are interested in this CAA interest group or others, please visit the webpage for more information.