St. Louis & the City Museum

Industrial landscape along the red line lightrail route, headed towards downtown. Lots of pipes along this building!

Since the pandemic began over two years ago, my traveling has been limited. The vast majority of my time has been spent around Chicagoland, and the rare trip has been done via car and only for a long weekend at a time. With more folks returning to some semblance of pre-pandemic life, I have at least one scheduled cross-country flight for this summer for a wedding. As enjoyable as this trip will be, I still feel anxiety about boarding a plane for the first time in several years, being in close proximity to others for several hours, and being away from home. As such, I planned a short sort of test run trip to make sure I could handle a longer flight and further venture. I opted to fly to St. Louis for a long weekend - at right around an hour, I figured this would give me a taste for the experience without needing to fully commit. We’d also never spent any time in St. Louis, so it was a good excuse to visit a new city.

Our first afternoon was spent wandering around the Arch and its surrounding public space. It was lovely to see the massive structure peeking through blooming trees.

The base of the arch, with stairs down to the visitor center and one of the many bridges across the Mississippi River in the background.

Though we only spent a couple of days, it was a lovely visit. The weather was warm and mostly sunny, a far cry from the rainy 40s and 50s we’d been experiencing in Chicago for what seemed like months. And it was great to explore and photograph, something I’d done far less of during the pandemic, but which feels so satisfying to me. The highlight of the trip for me was a day spent at the City Museum in downtown St. Louis:

“Housed in the 10-story, 600,000 square-foot warehouse of the International Shoe Company, City Museum is a mixture of children’s playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of found and repurposed objects. The brainchild of internationally-acclaimed artists Bob and Gail Cassilly, both classically trained sculptors, City Museum opened for visitors in 1997.”

The first space we walked into in the City Museum was full of sea creatures built out of concrete, mosaic, tunnels, and plants.

We then started up the stairs and realized the handrail rungs were made out of an old conveyor system, painted in bright colors.

Slides repurposed from the original merchandise chutes.

The space is absolutely incredible, and I feel like I could have spent the entire weekend there. The 10-story slides repurposed from the original merchandise chutes in particular were mesmerizing. I took many photographs as we walked from space to space, and it happily felt a bit like years past of finding a cool spot and experiencing it through photography. It was heartwarming to see such a broad cross section of the public enjoying the massive space. I’ll definitely be back, as they’re continually modifying and expanding the experience.

Model train, children’s train ride, and pinball area flanked by giant metal insect sculptures.

The rooftop featured a ferris wheel and beautiful views of the St. Louis skyline.

The roof also had several slides, more rebar tunnels to climb through, and a school bus balanced on the edge of the building.

We ended our visit wandering around the massive exterior structure along the old warehouse, which featured two aircraft resting on old cranes and a maze of metal tunnels many kids and some brave adults were climbing through.

It felt strange to be away from home, to be around strangers, to not always be masked up. I still have mixed feelings about how we’re moving forward. At the same time, it was nice to make some space for new experiences and wandering around a new city. 

Enjoying the sunshine, emerging leaves on the trees, and an old deco storefront in downtown St. Louis.

Wandering through Forest Park and stopping to take in the World’s Fair Pavilion on the way to the lightrail.

Stopping by the St. Louis Art Museum to admire the new wing that my partner helped to engineer.

Saying goodbye for now to St. Louis from the Forest Park lightrail station.

Accessibility course

When I first started working at Cultivate Learning, I was introduced to a short course that had been modified for our department on accessibility. It had originally been created for professors in Washington state, but because Cultivate Learning staff create resources for educators across the country, it’s understood that these resources need to be created with accessibility in mind. I decided to work on the course along with my other onboarding materials, and it proved to be very practical and helpful. 

The first portion of the course covered the basics: what accessibility is, why it matters, and the overlap and difference between accessibility and accommodation; types of disabilities and barriers; assistive technology; accessible design principles and universal design; and relevant laws and policies. I had some basic understanding of some of this content, but it was incredibly useful having so much of this foundational knowledge bundled together, along with lots of helpful additional links and resources. After reviewing this portion of the course, I felt like I had a much better understanding of accessibility, especially as it relates to educational contexts. 

The second part of the course dove into more specifics around the how of accessibility, focusing specifically on the creation of digital content. We covered information on how to create accessible Word documents, PDFs, PowerPoint presentation decks, videos, images, and websites. Some of this content was a review from when I took the HTML and CSS course in grad school. Since it had been a few years, I was definitely rusty, and it was great having the chance to put accessibility steps into practice with hands-on exercises. In particular, I had never made an accessible PowerPoint presentation before, and I learned where specific tools were located and factors to keep in mind (slide titles, element reading order, etc). I was able to learn more about the creation of helpful alt-text through seeing examples and trying it out myself, and it was drilled home how important the use of headings and structure is across so many different types of digital files. I also had the chance to add captions to a video, a first for me.

Screenshots of different orientation and support materials I created for our digital asset management system, which included both accessibility and universal design principles (upper left: PDF summary structured with headings, upper right and lower left: PowerPoint decks with written instructions and screenshots with alt-text, lower right: captioned narrated video).

Our final assignment for the course asked us to evaluate and commit to ways in which we could make our day-to-day work more accessible. I outlined how I would make email correspondence and documentation on our digital asset management (DAM) system and its surrounding protocol and policies accessible. I also committed to making training materials for our DAM system using both accessibility and universal design principles. I recently followed through with this through the creation of a set of multimedia orientation and support content for standard users of the system. This includes narrated videos, detailed written instructions with screenshots, and brief silent video clips on a range of topics about the system: an overview of what DAM is, a tour of the interface, as well as basics on how to search the system, share and download assets, and create virtual collections. All this content was bundled into PowerPoint decks and a PDF which contained links to all the materials, all of which was made as accessible as possible. It was a fun challenge to think through all of the aspects of this project and find as many ways to make this information clear and engaging. 

I’m grateful to have had the chance to take this course as part of my onboarding, as accessibility is key to my role in making information available to the folks who need it. I knew I was a novice around many of these issues, and while I have a much better understanding of some basics, these modules have fostered an even greater sense of curiosity and excitement around learning more. As is the case with so many factors and identities to be considered in fostering inclusion, lifelong learning and ongoing tangible application is necessary.

VRAF Workshop: Beyond Licenses

In January, I was able to attend the rescheduled workshop ‘Beyond Licenses: Integrating Creative Commons, RightsStatements.org, and Traditional Knowledge into Permissions,’ which was organized by the Visual Resources Association Foundation. My new role as digital asset specialist at Cultivate Learning involves managing a variety of rights and usage considerations, and this workshop was a helpful resource for refreshing some existing knowledge I had and learning more. The workshop description:

“Today’s visual resource professionals must understand that copyright is just one element of intellectual property rights and a multitude of “other” considerations that may need to be reviewed when undertaking licenses for reproductions of collection objects. This workshop will provide a baseline review of applicable intellectual property rights, including U.S. copyright law and the fair use limitation on exclusive rights, before delving into a deeper understanding for the potential integration of Creative Commons licenses, RightsStatements.org, and Traditional Knowledge labels with collection objects to expand existing permissions practices at galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs). Participants will be introduced to a variety of resources and examples to help guide them and their constituents in making appropriate decisions as they navigate evolving permissions practices, including Open Access initiatives, at GLAM institutions.”

Screenshot of a slide from the workshop, which provides the scope of what the right to privacy covers.

The workshop was presented from the perspective of visual resources professionals in the United States, though some differences were touched upon in regards to other countries’ rules and regulations. The instructor Anne Young went over in detail all the legal aspects of use we must consider: copyright, underlying rights, trademarks, patents, right to privacy, right to publicity, contractual restrictions, and licensing agreements. These issues are complicated on their own, especially when it comes to often murky copyright status with cultural heritage materials. Since Cultivate Learning works with a number of different organizations and grant bodies, copyright is an area I need to dig in more. I also need to spend some time with waivers and potential contractual restrictions, given that the majority of my organization’s assets depict or record individuals, and often minors. There is protocol and policy in place to handle this from the asset creation side of our workflow, and I want to ensure that the same thought and consideration is applied in the ongoing use and reuse of these assets. 

Screenshot of a slide from the workshop, which provides a definition of traditional knowledge labels.

I was particularly interested in the section of the workshop that dealt with some other considerations around use - namely those moral or ethical considerations like sensitive materials and traditional knowledge. In library school, some of my professors spent time discussing how our education and the institutions we’d work in privilege western notions of knowledge and ownership, and how these approaches exclude and fail Indigenous communities. This same issue surfaced in the workshop. As one small part of decolonizing our work, it’s clear that we need to take into account and apply traditional knowledge concepts. This includes collaborating with representatives from Indigenous communities in order to assign traditional knowledge (TK) labels where appropriate. Of course, this doesn’t make up for situations where institutions have acquired Indigenous materials without these communities’ consent, and as we learned in the workshop, these labels should only be assigned by representatives from these communities. But in cases like the one at Cultivate Learning - where our organization is providing shared access and use of a digital asset management system for a tribal community college’s photographs - the application of traditional knowledge labels makes sense. We also learned about cultural institution (CI) labels and how institutions may apply these as a way of inviting collaboration around description and TK labels with different communities.

Screenshot of a slide from the workshop, which provides a definition of cultural institution labels.

I’ve had a few opportunities to learn some basics around copyright while working in the field of archives and asset management, and this workshop was a fantastic chance to further distill and clarify this complex information. Especially since I’m in a new professional environment, it was helpful to review these considerations in this context. 

Chicago Architecture Biennial 2021

Through all the changes and turmoil of the second half of 2021, the most recent edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial was on my radar, but other pressures kept me from checking it out. I finally carved out some time to visit the indoor exhibition space the weekend it was set to close. Though I didn’t get a chance to explore the installations throughout the city, I’m glad I got a glimpse into what this year’s biennial was all about:

“The concept and title for the 2021 edition, The Available City, asks us to consider the impact collective space can have in cities today. Through a reinvented and responsive global platform, the Biennial will create opportunities for conversations about the intersection of architecture and design and such critical issues as health, sustainability, equity, and racial justice leading up to and throughout the run of the edition.”

A view of the work ‘Up from the Past: Housing as Reparations on Chicago’s South Side’ by Isabel Strauss. Naturally, I was really drawn to this presentation of archival research.

A detail of photographs from ‘Up from the Past.’

The connection between space, especially architecture, and the well-being of the community that inhabits it has always interested me. Working and volunteering at the National Public Housing Museum cemented the reality that housing is a human right. Our recent experience buying a 2-flat with our friends further revealed just how unfair and restrictive it can be securing stable housing. Exhibits in the biennial seemed to take these ideas as a baseline and expand further - into the creativity of ways in which people make their dwellings their homes, of ways in which communities collectively adapt spaces to meet their needs, of the possibilities of fostering greater connection across spaces between seemingly unlike communities. 

The installation ‘Miracles, Now’ by Departamento del Districto (Mexico City) analyzed the changing urban landscape of the city.

Detail view of ‘Miracles, Now’

Another detail view of ‘Miracles, Now’

I was absorbed by this non-narrated film ‘Communities at Work’ by Christophe Hutin Architecture (Bordeaux). It was fascinating watching how different communities make their spaces home.

In short, the works I saw felt more hopeful around the state of spaces, in spite of everything. It’s not that the status quo is acceptable, but rather works in the exhibit offered glimmers of what could be different, what could better serve the people and community that inhabit different spaces. I walked away from the biennial thinking about how individuals and groups are the most knowledgeable about how their spaces should be used, and reflecting on when, where, and why community is taken into account and allowed to lead development processes. I’m looking forward to the next biennial, and hopefully by that time, external circumstances will allow for me to explore it more in-depth.

The installation ‘Microprocesses: A Choreography of Urban Integration’ by Enlace Arquitectura + Ciudad Laboratorio (Caracas) looked at the divisions that occur in cities and how these artificial barriers can be broken down.

Another view of ‘Microprocesses: A Choreography of Urban Integration’

The final room of the exhibit in the Graham Foundation.

The installation ‘The Opportunity of Scarcity’ by El Cielo (Mexico City) invited visitors to imagine the urban landscape of Mexico City.

One view of a long scroll painting, entitled ‘Still Life in the Windy City’ by Drawing Architecture Studio (Beijing), that I absolutely loved. So many details and vignettes from around Chicago in one work.

Quincy, Illinois

This fall, I took one of the few trips I’ve been on since the pandemic started. We drove out to Quincy Illinois, which is located on the western border of the state along the Mississippi River. Our visit only lasted for a long weekend, and it felt strange to not be in Chicago, but it was nice to have a change of scenery. I was particularly interested in the architecture, especially the industrial area next to the river. It was a good excuse to get my camera out and do a little exploring.

This modernist bank was what prompted me to get out my camera for the first time during the trip.

The next few images are more from the bank. Because yeah, I really liked this building

Who knew that the entrance to parking could actually look interesting?

The mirrored glass made for lovely effects with the lines of the building itself.

Some adaptive reuse for these historic brick buildings, which were likely warehouses in their previous lives.

This taller building looked like it must have had joining tall neighbors which were demolished at some point.

The sun was very intense as we were walking around, and I was really into the white of these satellite dishes against the blue sky.

Historic theater downtown, all the tile work was beautiful.

Next to the theater, a line of multistory brick buildings. It was hard to tell if these were being used and/or occupied.

Walking towards the river as the afternoon progressed, with more industrial and warehouse views.

Old signage, including one neon sign, with taller brick buildings.

There’s a steep hill down to the river, and from the top you get nice views of the industrial buildings and bridges.

Looking up at yet another brick building with some interesting embellishments and partially obscured old painted advertisement or sign.

I enjoyed all the various levels of constructed landscape - lots of buildings on varying grades, and of course, lots of brick.

The newer of a few bridges running across the Mississippi. This little park at the base of the bridge was a pleasant stop for a break.

Silhouetted rail bridge and power lines.

A non-silhouetted view of the train tracks over the bridge, from the perspective of a grade-level set of train tracks.

And finally, some kind of electrical substation along the river, as seen through a chainlink fence.

Goodbye to AIC

Almost six years to the day after starting working at the Art Institute of Chicago, I said farewell to the museum, my colleagues, and my job last month. It was a bittersweet goodbye, and it’s incredible to look back at everything that’s happened in that time and how much I’ve grown and evolved professionally. The institutional photographic collection will always hold a special place in my heart - it’s the collection that acted as a springboard for me to learn about collections care, preventive conservation, archival best practices, and reference services. I completed a graduate certificate and masters degree using the collection as an opportunity to get hands-on experience and apply what I was learning. And the collection itself was such a joy to work with - lots of mysteries but also so many gems. 

Silent video tour of the archives.

Black and white contact sheets from the archives.

Aside from the images I worked with on a daily basis, I think I’ll most miss working with so many talented, passionate, and thoughtful colleagues. Museum workers truly are a unique breed, and though it took some time to find community, my experience working at the museum completely transformed once I formed relationships with peers across the institution. This was especially true with equity work through Mass Action, through the changes in communication brought about by the pandemic, and through the unionization efforts. Museum staff make a museum, they are the museum, and I feel so fortunate to have worked alongside so many amazing folks. I hope the field as a whole can evolve to better support everyone.

Black and white photograph in the archive; image depicts a photographer on scaffolding in a gallery.

Silent video of a drawer of exhibition image catalog cards from the archive.

I’m moving on in order to better care for myself, and hopefully to make more of a positive and direct impact on the world around me. Perhaps someday I’ll return to museum work someday, but for now, I have lots to look forward to in the form of a new job and entirely new field to learn about: early childhood education. I am going to be working as the digital asset specialist for Cultivate Learning, which is part of the University of Washington. I’m excited to begin this fully remote job and this next chapter in my career.

Open House Chicago 2021

October in Chicago means Open House Chicago, and this year was no exception. After 2020 only featuring sites visitors could view from the exterior, 2021 allowed a return to touring inside buildings across the city and near suburbs. Being fully vaccinated and missing exploring my city, I went out to see a handful of sites in spite of my anxiety about being around strangers for the first time since the pandemic began. I certainly didn’t regret it! We stopped at sites in Logan Square, Wicker Park, Fulton Market, and Back of the Yards, and the current functions of these buildings ranged from comedy clubs to schools to green business incubators. It felt good to get out, enjoy the city, and take some photographs.

Bar at the Lincoln Lodge in Logan Square.

Performance space in the Lincoln Lodge, Logan Square.

Exterior of Josephinum Academy of the Sacred Heart, Wicker Park.

Library in Josephinum Academy of the Sacred Heart, Wicker Park.

Interior of the Herman Miller Showroom in Fulton Market.

Framed work and wallpaper on a wall of the Herman Miller Showroom in Fulton Market

Interior break room space in the Plant, Back of the Yards.

Packinghouse Museum in the Plant, Back of the Yards.

Interior detail of plants in the Plant, Back of the Yards.

Plants and shelving inside Plant Chicago in Back of the Yards.

Interior detail of the ceiling in the Plant Chicago, Back of the Yards.

Barbara Kruger: THINKING OF YOU. I MEAN ME. I MEAN YOU.

In September, the Barbara Kruger exhibition opened at the Art Institute, and I opted to visit during one of my bi-weekly visits to work at the museum on a day when it was closed to the public. The exhibit is not a retrospective, but features work Kruger has created over several decades and in a variety of media - from small photo collages to video to full room installations. The website for the exhibition states:

“For more than 40 years, American artist Barbara Kruger has been a consistent, critical observer of the ways that images circulate through our culture. Combining images with provocative text, Kruger uses direct address—along with humor, vigilance, and empathy—to expose and undermine the power dynamics of identity, desire, and consumerism. As shrinking attention spans collide with the voyeurism and narcissism that define contemporary life, her immersive installations and widely circulated pictures and words invite us to reconsider how we relate to one another. THINKING OF YOU. I MEAN ME. I MEAN YOU. encompasses the full breadth of her career—from early and rarely seen “pasteups” (works that use an analog technique for physically arranging a page’s contents with manual “cut and paste”) to digital productions of the last two decades. The presentation includes works on vinyl, site-specific installations, animations, and multichannel video installations…The exhibition at the Art Institute—collaboratively designed with the artist—interrogates the specific cultural context of our museum, as it transcends the traditional exhibition space and extends into the museum’s public spaces and the city beyond. Kruger’s work not only fills the entirety of the museum’s largest exhibition space, the 18,000 square-foot Regenstein Hall, but also occupies Griffin Court—an 8,000-square-foot atrium running the length of the Modern Wing—with new site-specific work. Kruger’s text and images address both the architecture and relational spaces throughout the museum—from the windows in the historic Michigan Avenue building and the Modern Wing to various public spaces, some of which will also feature an ambient soundscape. Kruger will additionally engage the surrounding cityscape, creating work for billboards, the Chicago Transit Authority, and Art on theMART, among other locations and organizations.”

Banners of Kruger’s work installed on the exterior of the museum.

Kruger work installed on the risers of stairs leading to Regenstein Hall in the Art Institute of Chicago.

I wandered around the museum to several of the locations where work was installed and spent the majority of my time in Regenstein Hall. The first gallery space immediately immerses you in Kruger’s work, with all of the walls and floor being completely covered in large text. Exploring the rest of the exhibit, each space had a different feel, especially varying when time-based media was installed. I was the only one in the exhibit, and the clear sight-lines to the large scale works and at times jarring audio felt overwhelming at times. It’s likely this experience changes significantly with visitors present. 

First gallery of Kruger’s work in Regenstein hall, with text wraps covering the walls and floor.

Video work by Kruger.

Photography collage by Kruger.

Two large-scale Kruger works hang on the walls of a gallery, with a text wrap covering the floor.

It was an interesting tour, and I left thinking about the content and messages of Kruger’s work, the tension between the messaging and the museum itself, and what visitors to the museum would make of the exhibit.

Two large-scale text works by Kruger hang in a gallery.

Two works by Kruger in a gallery; the piece on the right is a video piece.

Text wrap by Kruger covering a gallery wall.

Society of American Archivists Annual Conference 2021

The annual Society of American Archivists conference was once again held in a digital format this year. Given my feeling of burnout, I attended with the hopes that it would help reignite my interest in archival work. Fortunately, the conference did not disappoint!

It was wonderful to see so many sessions that seemed to be focused on two general themes: reparative description and community archives. These are both topics that I have been interested in and wanting to learn more about, and given the number of sessions that addressed issues around both, I feel as though I walked away with a variety of perspectives. 

Samip Mallick presenting during the session ‘Community Archives Collaborative: Transforming Archival Work with Community-based Archives.’ The quote on his slide underscores the importance of archival records to communities, especially those that aren’t a part of dominant culture.

The sessions that I attended (both synchronously and asynchronously) that looked at the possibilities for inclusive metadata practices included: Instituting Sustainable Reparative Work from Where We Are; Language Matters: NARA and LAC Tackle Reparative Description; Temporal Ties: Addressing Harmful Pasts, Towards Imagining Just Futures; Foundations for Culturally Competent, Racially Conscious Metadata; and Making Product Less Problematic: Considerations of MPLP and Conscientious Description. The panelists in each session represented a range of different institutions - from government agencies to university libraries to small archives. It was helpful to find common threads throughout much of the discussion:

• Understanding your positionality (race, class, gender, nationality, disability status, etc) and how personal identity terms are not neutral are critical aspects to being mindful about this work, and also acknowledging that even with the best intentions it is very possible to perpetuate harm, especially if you belong to dominant identities

• Starting somewhere, even with small or basic steps like remedying collection-level description; progress over perfection

• Knowing that as archivists we often won’t know everything and need to reach out to subject experts, who are almost always members of the communities represented in and/or created by our collections

• Seeking community collaboration - not only around terms but also what priorities should be - can help archivists to be more strategic and create paths forward

• Embracing the reality that this work is iterative and that our workflows and resourcing (staff, time, etc) should take this into account; programs not projects so that the work is sustained rather than one-off

• Accepting that we may use technology to aid in speeding up some of this work - using a script to identify lists of problematic or harmful terms in finding aids, for example - but that redescription requires human intervention and judgment calls

• Accepting that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to redescription and reparative metadata work

• Approaching the work with an ethic of care and cultural humility

• Leaving notes on what was changed or amended for future users and archivists, considering if/when it is appropriate to retain previous harmful or erasing description

Sam Winn presenting during the session ‘Foundations for Culturally Competent, Racially Conscious Metadata.’ The slide provides reflections on the politics of naming.

Betts Coup presenting during the session ‘Making Product Less Problematic: Considerations of MPLP and Conscientious Description.’ The slide suggests that there should be normalization of not knowing and that learning and change should be key components to archival work.

I’m still mulling over all these ideas, and how care is so critical to a seemingly straightforward practice like description. That human-centered focus was a central theme to the sessions on community archives, as well. These sessions included: Temporal Ties: Addressing Harmful Pasts; Considering the Power of Naming Practices in Community-Based Archives; and Community Archives Collaborative: Transforming Archival Work with Community-based Archives. Some of my takeaways from these conversations:

• Many communities have grappled with symbolic annihilation from archives, which is when you and your community is not represented in mainstream collections; as a result these individuals and communities’ relationships with “traditional” repositories may be strained

• Community-based archives can provide an antidote to the traditional archival model in enabling folks to own their stories and history - in all its variation - outside those traditional repositories; self-determination, cultural sovereignty, and agency are key

• Some community-based archives may opt to adopt a post-custodial approach so that the owners/creators of the materials are able to retain the originals and the archive can then provide access to and unify materials digitally 

• Community-based archives serve to help people process generational trauma and heal, and also connect with previous generations and reclaim heritage; these archives can be a way of finding home and a way of continuing to keep the culture going

• Community is complicated! Marginalized communities aren’t a monolith, and it’s always important to take power dynamics into account with interactions; what is our relationship to power and how do we use it?

• Community-based and driven archives aren’t just about a repository collecting materials from a community but rather can and should be about disrupting existing power structures, including but not limited to training community archivists and providing them with free archival materials

• Depending on the nature of the organization, community-based archives may benefit non-hierarchical organizational structure and consensus based decision making

• Aside from simply amassing and providing access to materials, community-based archives can be uniquely positioned to activate their collections through collaborations

Joyce Gabiola and Gabrielle Garcia presenting during the session ‘ Temporal Ties: Addressing Harmful Pasts, Toward Imagining Just Futures.’ The slide reviews their framework for creating an inclusive environment at their organization.

Dominique Luster presenting during the session ‘Foundations for Culturally Competent, Racially Conscious Metadata.’ The slide asserts that archives are not neutral and that cultural competency is key in archival work.

I feel like so much of the work discussed during the sessions I attended critically looked at dismantling dehumanizing power structures in archives. The field has a long way to go in acknowledging and repairing the harm that has been done, often under the guise of neutrality and professionalism. It is heartening to see more folks working in the field centering human-centered archival work. 

Bisa Butler: Portraits

While working onsite recently, I finally made the time to go visit the Bisa Butler: Portraits exhibition. Being able to visit any exhibition at the museum is a big perk of working there, but I haven’t often taken advantage of this. In fact, even before the pandemic hit, I likely hadn’t wandered around the galleries in months. It felt good to finally remedy this.

The Safety Patrol, the first work you see when entering the exhibition.

Gallery view of Bisa Butler: Portraits

Butler’s portrait works are absolutely beautiful. Color and texture, shape and pattern, viewing her works felt like a balm for this worn out museum worker. The media of the works - largely comprised of fabric - lends a physicality that really drew me in. And I loved the fact that so many of her pieces are based off of archival photographs of Black folks throughout history. The exhibition website has this to say about Butler’s art:

“She strategically uses textiles—a traditionally marginalized medium—to interrogate the historical marginalization of her subjects while using scale and subtle detail to convey her subjects’ complex individuality. Together, Butler’s quilts present an expansive view of history through their engagement with themes such as family, community, migration, the promise of youth, and artistic and intellectual legacies.”

Gallery view of Bisa Butler: Portraits

Gallery view of Bisa Butler: Portraits, including the work Southside Sunday Morning (left), one of my favorite pieces in the show. It’s based on a 1941 photograph by Russell Lee of a group of boys seated on the hood of a car on Easter morning.

I found myself standing and looking at each of the pieces for much longer than I often do artworks in galleries, taken with the faces of the subjects in particular. The museum was closed to the public on the day I visited, so the galleries were largely silent and empty. In one gallery, however, the museum’s public affairs coordinator was working with a Chicago-based photographer on a shoot. The photographer was collaborating with Butler - who had not yet arrived by the time I headed back to my office - on in situ portraits with some of her artworks. Living artists represent a small fraction of the museum’s collections holdings and exhibition subjects, so it was so satisfying seeing this connection between contemporary artists play out in the gallery. This brought Butler’s life to work for me even further. 

Dear Mama by Bisa Butler

Detail from Dear Mama

The Princess by Bisa Butler

Detail from The Princess

This experience reminded me of how powerful artwork can be and the necessity of taking time to enjoy exhibitions like this one.

Reference request: staff clothing in the 1980s

One reference request that did help get my mind off my frustration surrounding the treatment of workers and continued uneasiness about being onsite during the pandemic was from an individual working in costuming for a television show. They are working on wardrobe for an episode set at the museum during the 1980s and were inquiring whether staff working at the museum wore uniforms during this period, and what those outfits looked like if so. They were seeking reference images to help ensure historical accuracy, which I appreciate. 

One of my favorite topics of the archive I manage are images of staff and staff at work. I think it’s important to make the work of museums more visible, to help visitors understand how their experience is the result of many hands and choices, not some singular, neutral entity. So I was keen to dive in and explore staff from this decade. I had some ideas on what jobs may have required or lent themselves to uniforms - security guards, housekeeping staff, and groundskeeping staff, for example - so I began by doing keyword searches in our databases for these terms to find unique identifiers corresponding to images. I also searched the much more generic term of “staff.” From these results, I narrowed the search to images created during the 1980s. Then I began looking in the archive itself for images with the selected unique identifiers, since few of the negatives had been previously digitized. Since most of the images are organized roughly chronologically, I also perused neighboring negatives to see if there were any other relevant images. 

I found a variety of images that seemed to fit the request, so I digitized as many of these negatives and transparencies as I could while onsite. Staff who appear to have worn uniforms during this time included my original suspicions of security guards and housekeeping and groundskeeping staff. Included here too were facilities staff, carpenters, and some art handlers. Other behind-the-scenes office staff, including curators, collection managers, photographers, and editors, did not appear to wear uniforms; nor did docents. 

Transparencies showing staff at the museum who wore uniforms around this time period.

I’m forever thankful that photographers captured what they did, and that the archive has kept these images safe. Even if some of these images were considered unimportant or even boring at the time - and some may still think of them that way today - they still hold value in functioning as a snapshot of the time. In this case, the focus was the clothing, but these images can tell many stories. 

Returning to work after being furloughed

April 1st I came back to work from furlough, and mid-April was my first trip back onsite since the November prior. I made monthly visits for the rest of the spring to fulfill reference requests. It felt strange returning - I was thankful to have a paycheck from the museum again, it was great to virtually meet with colleagues again, and the physical archive itself is a comfort in its own (relatively) unchanging, indifferent way. But it’s challenging not to feel some anger and frustration for everyone who was furloughed and those who weren’t furloughed but bore the brunt of increased workloads. And the negative feelings extend to how workers at the museum and beyond have been treated in capitalist societies. Many actions taken - layoffs, workers being forced to come onsite often without necessary protective equipment while the pandemic raged, pay cuts, furloughs - were described as inevitabilities when in reality these were choices made by those with power. In many cases, though the resulting economic downturn from the pandemic has been blamed as the catalyst for these actions, there is sufficient money available. Wealth and power is further consolidated during wide scale emergencies like this one. 

A visual representation in the form of many notations on a catalog card of all the workers who have worked with this archive.

Routine work - finding and digitizing large format negatives like this one - does provide some grounding after months of instability.

It seems reasonable that those who survived the last year would move on from this experience with a different understanding of the way the world works, and how unnecessarily fraught of existences so many live. I sincerely hope that collectively, we don’t attempt to return to “business as usual.” We need better safety nets for people, and folks shouldn’t have to work in order to sustain themselves. It remains to be seen what, if anything, we carry with us moving forward. Seeing downtown emerging from winter, green replacing gray, and blossoms emerging is a reminder that time marches on. What we make of our time is up to us.

A view of Grant Park and the skyline, Chicago.

Maggie Daley Park with skyscrapers in the background, Chicago.

Lilacs blooming outside of the museum, Chicago.

A moment of peace in the north gardens of the museum on a sunny day.

VRA Conference 2021

In March, I attended the annual Visual Resources Association conference, which was a virtual event. After a year of doing many things online, it felt fairly natural to return to my screen for the conference. It’s definitely more challenging making organic connections with others in this format, but I do appreciate that the organizers encouraged attendees to contribute to community notes documents and that most sessions were recorded. It can be difficult retaining all the information presented at events like this one, so I’m glad I can have materials to turn back to at a later date. 

The sessions I attended were great, and I was drawn in particular to those that centered people in the archives. The first of these was titled Cash Rules Everything Around Me:

“[this session] will gather a diverse range of GLAM professionals to discuss financial/compensation transparency and how it relates to the field. It will generate a fruitful discussion surrounding compensation at various points in one’s career and across the field at large. Everyone is encouraged to attend. Students and emerging professionals, in particular, will leave feeling empowered with strategies to navigate employment, and managers/administrators will gain insight into potential discrepancies and inequities.”

The conversation was moderated and organized by two members of the Equitable Action Committee and two additional members of the VRA. They began by presenting findings from a survey sent out to visual resources professionals regarding education and training, job advancement, pay and benefits, among other practical aspects of working in this field. Those who participated in the survey also had the opportunity to pass along advice to emerging professionals, and excerpts were shared during the session. The results of that survey can be found in the presentation slide deck. Next, a panel of folks with a lot of experience working in the field discussed their career paths, strategies for getting promotions and raises, and general tips on navigating employment in difficult times. There was a ton of helpful content shared, some of the notes I jotted down are below.

• Document anything you do that benefits work; this includes overtime, special projects, and professional development. This documentation can come in handy when asking for a promotion, raise, better benefits, and/or applying for new jobs.

• Start salary conversations before the end of fiscal year. Think of annual reviews as an opportunity for negotiation.

• Present salary justification information as a one page briefer to both your boss and HR.

• Prepare a script for discussing salary and benefits for a job offer. The script could include: thanks, here’s what I bring, here’s what my research has told me about what’s fair for a salary, maybe 1-3 more things in addition to salary if she isn’t asking for a lot more money (ex: 5 extra vacation days), “what are your thoughts on this?”

• Lots of public institutions have accessible databases where you can look at salaries for people with your job title or for the job title you are applying for. This is a valuable tool when you negotiate for a starting salary or raises.

• If a salary or salary range isn’t posted, ask for that information when scheduling an interview, as it wastes everyone’s time if there’s a misunderstanding about this.

• Talk to peers at your current institution (similar educational requirements, responsibility) and compare numbers to understand your current salary and benefits situation better.

• Research a potential employer and use professional networks to learn more. This can help you decide if the position might be a good fit and if you’ll receive adequate compensation.

• Negotiation strategies in COVID world: think about non-compensation things you can ask for - days off, flex schedule, etc

• Financial literacy is important especially if you don’t have much experience with it. Take advantage of any financial planning info provided through work

At conferences, it often feels like there’s a focus on the work professionals do, so it was a nice change of pace to see the focus shift to those doing the work. The field of visual resources is nothing without those doing the labor. I’m grateful for the folks who organized this session, and it seemed that those who attended were also glad to have a platform to talk about these issues.

Allie Scholten and a slide from her presentation ‘Remediating Records: Critical Cataloging and Keywork Reparation’ during the Emerging Voices Lightning Round session.

I also really enjoyed the Emerging Voices Lightning Round Session, organized the Visual Resources Emerging Professionals Committee, which:

“provides emerging professionals in the visual resources field and related, the opportunity to present topics from exceptional coursework, such as a master's thesis, or topics with which they are engaged early in their professional life. Emerging professionals are defined as either students in programs leading to a career in visual resources or related, or those within 10 years of the start of their career. Topics presented reveal new ideas as well as different ways of thinking about established concepts. Speakers will give the conference attendees a glimpse of interests and current discourses of the newest VRA members.” 

The slide deck for the five presenters can be found here. The emerging professionals who spoke were:

• Hilary Wang - Findings: A Survey on the State of Web Accessibility in Archives and Special Collections

• Cassie Tanks - “Can You Hear Me OK?”: Launching a Story Based Archive During COVID-19

• K. Sarah Ostrach - Photos from Taipei in Washington, DC: Processing a Chinese Collection at the National Gallery of Art

• Allie Scholten - Remediating Records: Critical Cataloging and Keywork Reparation

• Jack O'Malley - Protecting Employment and Building Capacity During a Crisis

All of the presentations were engaging. Even though I’m only barely out of the “emerging professionals” category, I still found it interesting to see what areas of the profession are being pushed and pulled - all for the better. In this lightning round too, there was a focus on people in archival settings, both those doing the work and those using the visual resources materials. I hope this focus propels the field forward.

Steven De'Juan Booth as the keynote speaker, sharing one image of President Obama and visitors to the Oval Office, part of the Obama Presidential Library collection.

The keynote session was titled the Afterlife of What We Archive, and it was presented by Steven De'Juan Booth:

“an archivist, researcher, and co-founder of The Blackivists, a collective of trained Black memory workers ​who provide expertise on archiving and preservation practices to communities in the Chicagoland area. His work and research interests include analog and born-digital audiovisual materials, Black cultural heritage preservation, community archives, and digital scholarship. He is currently the archivist/project manager of the Johnson Publishing Company Archive for the Getty Research Institute and the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

In 2020, Steven co-edited with Stacie Williams Loss/Capture, an editorial project exploring the state of Black cultural archives in and beyond Chicago, presented by Sixty Inches From Center, a Chicago-based arts publication and archiving initiative. ​He is currently working on a book project with Barrye Brown documenting the contributions and impact of African American archivists in SAA. He is also researching Black LGBTQIA spaces and newsletters published in the Midwest as sites and sources of knowledge production and sharing.  

Steven is part of a long lineage of Black information professionals who have matriculated from Morehouse College (BA in Music) and Simmons College (MS in Library Science). You can read more about his work on his website at http://www.stevendbooth.com/.”

He spoke about his journey to working in archives and how his experience working in the field has shaped his perception of what archives are and can be. I was drawn to his assertion that archives are as much about relationships (with donors, subjects, users, communities, fellow archivists) as they are about stuff - archives are about connection. This connection comes into play intrapersonally, and between individuals and their history and community. As such, radical empathy is key in archives. Archivists need to learn how to better talk to our communities in order to do this. We’re good at talking to other archivists but can’t always bridge the gap with folks who don’t have training in this field. And we need to spend more time listening with the understanding that sometimes users want to be heard without needing a concrete thing from the archives. He told some amazing stories about connecting with patrons to the Obama Presidential Library which clearly illustrated how to embrace this person-centered approach to the work. His talk was inspiring.

Kate Thornhill and a slide from her presentation ‘Decolonizing knowledge within Afro-Indigenous traditions‘ in the session Power and Respect: Giving Back IPR Rights to Vulnerable Communities.

The last session I’ll write about is Power and Respect: Giving Back IPR Rights to Vulnerable Communities:

“How can intellectual property rights be leveraged, documented, and framed in order to hold up the rights of vulnerable communities, provide repatriations to them, and ensure their data security? As curators, archivists, and librarians who participate in documenting future histories and hidden histories, how do we include marginalized communities into the documentation of their own visual media histories? For this VRA 2021 conference session, presenters who work in archives, digital scholarship, and museums will share techniques, methodologies, and policies that consider vulnerable communities ownership of intellectual property rights when building digital archives, digital collections, and digital humanities projects.”

A panel of four presenters discussed projects and work that navigated the boundaries of creation and ownership. These speakers were: Kate Thornhill on decolonizing knowledge within Afro-Indigenous traditions, April Hathcock on the Femifesto project, Meredith Hale on the Voices out loud project, and IP manager at San Francisco Museum of Art Sriba Kwadjovie Quintana who spoke about her experiences in that role and working with living artists.

Their presentations and the following discussion underscored how archivists and visual resources professionals need to - and in many cases are - shift away from the idea of our institutions as benevolent and rightful owners of all knowledge. Not all knowledge can and should be acquired, described, and be made accessible to all users. The wishes of creators and subjects of materials should always be centered, above the right of users’ access, especially when it comes to systemically, historically marginalized groups. I was drawn to the three pillars of the Femifesto project, as a means of summarizing what this type of relationship between communities and professionals can look like: (1) building relationships, (2) ethical cataloging and metadata creation, and (3) responsible sharing and accessibility.

The Q&A session at the end of the presentations resulted in some interesting dialogue around navigating care with creators and communities while working in institutional settings that are often more rigid, and how to handle individuals and communities in cases where legal protections are no longer in place. The panelists underscored that we operate in colonialist, capitalist systems - both at work and in our broader society. They stressed that we must acknowledge these realities, be transparent about processes and limitations, build trust and relationships, advocate for these groups, explore post-custodial models, and always consider ethics even if the law doesn’t come into play in any given situation.

These sessions and all the others that I attended at the conference gave me a lot to consider as I return to work. Though a lot of these issues don’t come up in my current role, given the limitations of working with an institutional collection, it is likely these scenarios may be more relevant in future positions. And ultimately, the overarching idea that people matter as much, if not more, than the “stuff” in our collective stewardship, is an important one to carry back to any job in this field.

Photography experiments

During my furlough, I spent some time with my camera. I didn’t make much time for photography in previous years as a result of school, so this seemed like a good opportunity to get back into the saddle. And, unlike what few photography sessions I made time for in the recent past, I attempted to do so without exploring a new environment. Architectural, landscape, and place-based photography is my bread and butter, so I decided to switch things up. I worked with macro photography and some different prism materials to create compositions around our apartment. The change of pace was nice - it was a release to experiment, release, and not put so much pressure on myself to make “good” pictures. I hope I can continue this practice more regularly moving forward, since it reminded me why I fell in love with photography to begin with.

Looking through a colorful prism out my office door to the building across the street.

Detail of small rainbows produced from one of my prisms in my office window.

A rare self-portrait, taken with a colorful prism distorting my face.

View out one of our living room windows to the street, photographed through a filter that produces rainbows in the light.

My hand basking in one of the many rainbows that now travel through our living spaces in the afternoon.

Macro image of a rainbow bismuth crystal

Accessibility & Archives

One of the ways that I’ve been passing the time while being furloughed is attending workshops and webinars on topics of interest to me. Some of these have focused on technology in the field of image management and archives, and some have focused on decolonizing and creating racial equity in the GLAM field. I have also attended sessions focused on accessibility: Accessible Design for the NYC Digital Humanities (NYCDH) week and Reimagining Access: Inclusive Technology for Archives & Special Collections an IMLS funded symposium hosted by ArtCenter College of Design. This is one area of equity work which I haven’t spent as much time with, and both sessions were incredibly helpful.

THE NYCDH workshop focused on accessibility on the web. The presenter Heather Hill first provided some foundational information on accessibility more broadly, explained why folks in digital humanities should be concerned with this, then gave an overview of universal design and some of its limitations. Since no one approach to accessibility will be perfect for every individual, I really appreciated these takeaways:

• Remain flexible and adaptive

• Universal design is a process, not a goal

• We are trying to move in the right direction

Next, Hill covered basic concepts of accessible design in the web, including the structure and design, theme, and content of websites and digital experiences. We had the chance to learn about specifics, including the impact of proper heading and subheading usage for those using screenreaders, the importance of keyboard shortcuts for those navigating primarily by keyboard rather than a mouse, and how distracting features like automatic playing videos or audio can be distracting for some neurodivergent folks. 

The last portion of the workshop provided time for all the participants to test out a few of the accessibility tools that are available for evaluating websites: HTML CodeSniffer, WAVE, Tota11y, W3C HTML checker and CSS checker, and SortSite. My group took a look at the HTML CodeSniffer. It was overwhelming at first decoding the errors, warnings, and notices. After spending some time experimenting, it became clear how much helpful information the tool provides: it points to the location on the page that doesn’t align with the W3C recommendations for accessibility, it links to the specific W3C recommendation that’s being violated, and it provides the corresponding snippet of code for the offending issue. One of my graduate courses covered web accessibility for one lesson - which is hardly enough - and this workshop demonstrated to me how much more I have to learn. Fortunately, the presenter provided copies of her slides and additional resources so I can continue to dive into these issues.

The same day, the ArtCenter College of Design hosted its symposium on accessibility in archives and special collections. The first speaker, Joshua Halstead, discussed design logics and paradigms, and how the framing of disability matters. He discussed the established (medical, functional limitations, social, minority group) and emerging (critical disability theory, disability justice, political/relational model) approaches to disability and how these different models impact design. He looked at different approaches to disability and design - through the lens of universal design, adaptive design, inclusive design, and critical design - and asserted that there is the potential for disability design to extend beyond just the immediate and practical to positively impact everyone. His talk underscored the idea that there are no stable definitions or universals when thinking about disability, and that we need to take this into account when thinking about design.

The following discussion featured members of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) Accessibility and Disability Section: Michelle Ganz, Dr. Lydia Tang, and Sara White. They provided a history of SAA’s efforts in creating guidelines for accessibility and an overview of the revised document, which is much more expansive and inclusive in its definition of disabilities - including vision, movement, hearing, communication, interaction, and mental health disabilities. The new guidelines cover core values, effective communication, the physical environment, public services, exhibitions and public programming, workplace accessibility, and digital content. It was helpful to learn about specific examples of how recommendations were being implemented in real world scenarios - installing variable height desks and chairs in reading rooms, and using supporting audio via sound domes for exhibitions - in order to understand how practically drafted SAA’s guidelines are. I will definitely be spending more time with this document.

The last portion of the symposium I was able to attend was dedicated to perspectives from archivists, users and designers with a range of disabilities: Michelle Ganz, Dr. Jeffrey Swada, and Sara White. They shared with attendees their personal experiences navigating archives and libraries as researchers and as employees. Dr. Swada presented a series of videos of his screenreader reading several archival repository websites, digital portals, and finding aids. Through his discussion, he provided some invaluable tips on how to help tools like this one more clearly and effectively present digital information. It is common to see a focus on accessibility in this field on patrons, so it was a welcome addition to get the perspective of staff navigating accessibility issues, as well. Ganz and White talked about the ways in which their disabilities intersected with and impacted working with larger teams, and ways in which they and other disabled archivists have faced discrimination. While the field is making some progress, it’s clear that we have much work to do. And I’m so thankful for those who shared their lived experiences, so that we all might better understand how inaccessible archives and libraries often are so we can make necessary changes.

These sessions have been reminders of what I enjoy and care about working in archives and archives-adjacent positions, they’ve been helpful chances to find grounding and connection while I’m away from work. Ultimately, I want to connect folks with information that is useful and of interest to them, and accessibility is core to that. And critically, this work should be infused with an ethic of care. Learning about the experiences of other folks is one important step to that end. 

The end of 2020, the beginning of 2021

Last month saw some major life changes, and some serious ups and downs. On one hand, my partner and I closed on and moved into a lovely 2-flat building with our close friends. Buying a home never felt like a possibility, but with the news that the apartment building we were collectively living in was being sold (which had happened in the previous building all of us lived in), we recognized there would be more stability in owning. Through the guidance of some very helpful professionals, we found our new home. It feels good to know we can put down some roots, continue to be neighbors with our pals, and it’s exciting to have the chance to get to know a new (to us) neighborhood. This opportunity still feels unreal, and I’m so thankful for it.

On the other hand, less than a week after our closing, I was informed that I would be furloughed from January until at least March, along with over 100 staff at the museum. The governor’s order to close all museums back in November was the justification used for this measure, along with several layoffs and pay cuts non-furloughed staff were forced to take. After 4 weeks of being furloughed, around 40 of us have been told that we will be furloughed until at least April, even though the museum has been given the green light to open. I am frustrated and sad for those departments that have been particularly hard hit - our education team, and the library and archives - given how committed these teams are to their work, their colleagues, and the communities they support. I’m also concerned about non-furloughed staff and the likelihood that they are taking on more work given their coworkers’ absences. Unsurprisingly, this is compounding on an already difficult time for so many, and one that’ll leave its mark for some time to come.

I suppose the closing lessons of 2020 and opening lessons of 2021 are those of the unpredictability of life and the need to find grounding regardless of what’s happening in the outside world. I still struggle to accept and embrace these realities, but it would seem I’ll have many more opportunities to practice and grow. 

Onsite visits to the museum during COVID-19

My first trip back to the museum for work happened in mid-September, and I’ve been back once a month since then. Core essential staff have been required to be onsite since the closure - teams including security, facilities, and housekeeping. Over the summer, limited additional teams whose work required them to be on campus were allowed to return in a controlled manner. This coincided with institution-wide layoffs and restructuring. I kept my job, but was moved to a new department. Regardless, both my old and new departments were permitted to return onsite. And so, to date, I’ve made three trips back to the museum.

The first trip back marked six months since the majority of the museum started working remotely. I had quite a few reference requests that required access to our card catalog and physical archives, so this took up a substantial portion of my time. I also ensured that the collection was generally intact, and that there were no glaring environmental or other condition issues that needed attention. I wrapped up the trip by gathering some information about the collection itself for my old department’s standard operating procedures manual - documentation that’s proven to be helpful in the transition to my new department.

The second and third trips back felt slightly less frenzied in pace. Given the shorter time between these visits, far fewer reference requests had built up. This meant that I had time to turn to another project: digitizing our exhibition documentation catalog cards. Totalling roughly three drawers, these cards hold information for which exhibitions at the museum were documented between the early 1900s and 1970s. After this time, this information was captured digitally in a series of databases for the department. I managed to get through the digitization of all 3,000+ cards. 

Since queries for exhibitions are common, my hope is that the digitized cards will be a useful reference for me and other staff. But to make access even easier, I plan on transcribing the exhibition titles and unique identifiers for the corresponding negatives or transparencies. And to facilitate future plans for the comprehensive digitization of all these photographic materials, and to link the images with the exhibition records in our collections management system, I aim to link the archive’s unique identifiers with the exhibition record IDs. In turn, this should result in many more archival images on the exhibition portal of the public website.

I’ve struggled with the idea that non-essential organizations like our museum should open, given the very real risk of COVID in our city, state, and country. The museum has recently been forced by our governor to close the museum to the public given the surge in cases leading up the holidays, though this closure does not apply to staff. I feel extraordinarily lucky to have been able to set my own schedule for returning to work, and I wish that this was the case for everyone. I hope that the exhibition documentation catalog card project can provide additional work for museum staff working remotely, especially if we return to a broader closure of the campus. It’s hard to anticipate what the future will bring these days, but I’m grateful to still be employed, to have found ways of doing my work, and for all the support and camaraderie of my colleagues. 

VRA EAC community hours, Institutional Responses to BLM

In April, I joined the Visual Resource Association’s (VRA) Equitable Action Committee (EAC). This group evolved from the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee in fall of 2019, and is now tasked to:

“Advance and support an equitable, diverse, accessible, and inclusive association. With critical reflection and a steady eye on the future, this committee seeks to strengthen the association’s membership by welcoming, embracing, and supporting historically marginalized people, voices, and narratives. The committee also aims to educate and empower the association’s membership on issues of accessibility and disability inclusion opportunities. This committee will advise the Executive Board on creating equitable and inclusive practices.”

I wanted to join the committee because this work is critical, and I wanted to do this work outside my workplace. MASS Action and the fairly newly formed Equity Working Groups at the museum have been great opportunities for staff to push for necessary change and support each other through our individual learning and growth. I wanted to find a similar community outside our institution’s walls, especially given the limited capacity in which we’ve been able to do this work since the museum shuttered in March. This group has been really amazing in all those and so many more capacities. The co-chairs and other members are all wonderful, kind, and dedicated folks working in the broader visual resources field. 

The committee has organized a set of regular online discussion forums called community hours, in order to support professionals working in the field. Since April 2020, they’ve hosted community hours around topics including: employee and student privacy during the pandemic, setting remote work boundaries, examining gaps in support, critical cataloging, and professional development. These have varied in format from more traditional presentations and Q&A to looser discussions with some guiding prompts. Folks in VRA and beyond have been welcomed to come as they’re interested and available, and community-generated notes are available for all on the EAC’s website. Feedback has been positive for these events.

Given the mission of EAC, after the murder of George Floyd and resulting uprisings, the committee decided that we wanted to address racial equity in the visual resources field. The proliferation of racial equity statements coming from museums, archives, and libraries seemed like a good place to start. So we opted to organize two community hours around these statements: one looking at the responses of institutions from a communication perspective, and a second looking at concrete action that has or has not come from supposed commitments to racial justice.  

I gathered readings, developed prompts, and co-moderated these sessions, with the support (housekeeping announcements, screen and closed caption sharing, note taking) of our co-chairs. I’m not comfortable speaking in front of more than a couple of people, so I’m thankful to have worked with other members of the committee on this. Given the need for conversations around racial equity, and holding our respective institutions accountable, I knew I needed to set my discomfort aside to contribute to these community hours.

Both of the sessions drew around 20 participants, largely VRA members, and there was good dialogue and discussion. It was helpful to learn what other museums, archives, and libraries were or were not doing, especially to discover whether public statements were aligning with concrete anti-racism actions. The sessions provided space for folks to bring issues they were facing at work, and for resources to be shared around racial equity and anti-racism broadly and in our professional field.

The first conversation started with some guiding prompts as a jumping off point for further discussion. For the second session, we opted to turn some of the discussion prompts into poll questions to allow those joining to participate in a different format. We recognized that some joining may not have felt comfortable adding to either the chat or speaking up - even though these sessions are not recorded for the privacy of attendees - based on fear of voicing criticisms of their employer, discomfort in talking about racism and white supremacy, and/or discomfort in participating in group settings (or something else altogether!). 

I struggled during both sessions - with long pauses between written or verbal comments, with finding the “right” words and being an “effective” co-facilitator, and with wanting the sessions to be meaningful and helpful to those joining. I recognize that a lot of this is wrapped up in my own perfectionism (a characteristic of white supremacy culture), white fragility, and white silence. And I also recognize that my own desire to support tangible change and brainstorm plans for action are driven by urgency (again, a characteristic of white supremacy) and a general need to “fix” problems rather than to sit with difficult feelings. Since these community hours are community-driven, participants steered the conversation towards holding space for one another. And that’s ok, and it’s ok that I struggled. 

More than anything, I hope those who attended got something out of the sessions, that those who looked at the shared notes gleaned something from them, and that folks feel perhaps a little more empowered to do what they can to dismantle racism and white supremacy where they find it, including in our workplaces. We’re all learning and growing together, and sessions like these are just one step in that process. 

Adventuring around Chicago - Summer 2020

For the last year or so, I had imagined that this summer would be one filled with celebration and travel since I completed grad school in May. The pandemic dramatically altered those plans. While it feels like a bit of a let down, I also recognize how incredibly fortunate I am these days: still employed, in good health, cohabitating with a wonderful partner and stress-relieving cat. I know this is not the case for many, and that reality is far, far worse than a lost summer of fun. So, I’m readjusting my expectations and am seeking opportunities for escape a little closer to home.

Our close friends live downstairs, and we’ve been part of the same pandemic bubble since day one. I’ve gone on a few outings with them, with my partner, and solo - masked and largely within state borders to protect ourselves and those around us. It’s pretty remarkable how much my perspective changed on my surroundings after spending 95% of my time in the same 1,000 square foot apartment, with only the occasional walk around the neighborhood or trip to the grocery store. What likely would have been fairly mundane trips now feel like so much more. This shift in perspective is welcome, and it’s an unexpected gift in the midst of so much pain and suffering. It’s a confusing mixture of feelings to hold at the same time. 

I also haven’t been taking as many photographs as I’d anticipated I might this year. The majority of the images I’ve taken have been around our apartment, unsurprisingly, but our trips have been one exception to that. Below are a few of those, a few tangible slices of life during this incredibly strange and difficult time.

A ride down to Bridgeport means stops to take photographs of the old factories and warehouses in the area

More Bridgeport sights

One last view from Bridgeport

A stop to admire the architecture in West Town after picking up coffee

Alley peeping around Winnemac

A solo stroll around Humboldt Park

A fitting mural at Empty Bottle

A beautiful day around Goose Island

It was strange going months without going downtown

Walking through Wicker Park after a trip to the dentist

Hospitals: terrifying before, even moreso now

Venturing into the suburbs

A rare indoor trip for specialty wood

Big Marsh on the south side of the city

More Big Marsh, excited to visit again soon to see changes in this work-in-progress park

Driving around the industrial far south side

More industrial sights, this time at Wolf Lake

SAA Annual Conference 2020

As with all the other changes that COVID-19 has brought about, another has come in the form of conferences and symposium being shifted to virtual events. I had been looking forward to the Society of American Archivists’ annual conference, which was slated to take place in Chicago this summer. Instead, it took place online. Though it was definitely a different experience than comparable in-person conferences I’ve attended in the past, it was still full of great sessions.

There were a number of sessions that focused on diversifying archives, and I took away so much from these presentations and following discussions. The first plenary from Tempestt Hazel of Sixty Inches from Center dove into artists of color in Chicago and the grassroots effort of the organization to amplify, advocate for, and archive the work of these communities. Hazel spoke to the long tradition of gatekeeping in archives and the need to break down these barriers in order to collaborate with individuals often underrepresented in traditional repositories. I absolutely loved one of her closing thoughts that we should all work to create “a future that works for all of us not just some of us.”

I also attended the session ‘Beyond Diversity Initiatives: Nontraditional and Student-centered Approaches to Recruiting BIPOC into Archives and Special Collections Librarianship,’ which was described as following:

The purpose of this pop-up session is to discuss how Special Collections and Archives departments in academic libraries can provide mentorship and viable/meaningful professional development opportunities for BIPOC. Despite the growing focus on diversity and recruitment by library schools and institutions like SAA, ALA, ACRL among others, BIPOC not only remain underrepresented in the field, but many continue to encounter barriers within library cultures. As many diversity initiatives often focus on current LIS students or those with expressed interest in the profession, this panel will discuss how institutions can leverage their strengths to build and foster diversity programs aimed to recruit prospective undergraduate and graduate students, and library staff and student workers into the profession.

Based on critical pedagogy, and nontraditional and student-centered approaches, the Cal State LA Special Collections & Archives Student Assistant Program is designed to support and mentor students with potential in the field. Cal State LA is one of the largest and most diverse campuses in the CSU system and is uniquely positioned to recruit students into the profession by embedding community-centered archival practices into primary source instruction, outreach and reference services, and the library student worker experience. Topics discussed by the panelists will include: fostering and mentoring students; intentional engagement; student outreach; developing student agency; and the panelists' personal experiences navigating the profession.

The presenters provided some contextual information about the field, and the stubborn pattern of archivists being predominantly white. They outlined how they are working to welcome more BIPOC students to the profession through the Special Collections & Archives Student Assistant Program. They designed this experience to be student-centered and led, constructivist in pedagogical approach, with an emphasis on mentorship and creating tailor-fit projects. The idea presented that we need to implement diversity intentionally and as a priority, beyond just our mission statements, really resonated with me. 

Next, I attended the session ‘Showing Up: Community Engagement Events Toward a Better Cultural Record,’ which featured speakers from a number of institutions and addressed the ways in which repositories can engage with their local communities:

Increasingly, archives venture outside their walls to engage with community partners to create and amplify records of groups whose stories hadn't been previously collected. While building these collaborative relationships is time-consuming and demanding, it is imperative and rewarding too. This panel will explore the centrality of community partnerships in the diversification of the archival record, featuring programs that have hosted grant-funded community engagement activities to create and collect documentation of historically underrepresented groups.

Included were discussions about how an Indianapolis repository connected with African American communities in the area to form a new digital collection showcasing the community’s history, how a repository at a university in Northwest Ohio forged new ties with the Islamic community to bolster that collecting area, and a collaboration between the American Indian Center and a partnering university to support the AIC’s archive. Each of the presenters provided information on both the ways in which they grew these partnerships, and logistical and practical aspects of the work (copyright, digitization equipment, workflow, etc). Given the long history of archival repositories either excluding non-dominant cultures or taking materials from these communities with paternalistic intentions, it was refreshing to hear how some archivists are approaching these relationships differently today. Co-creation and co-ownership can and should be at the core of this work.

SAA also organized a ‘Diversity Forum: Black Lives and Archives Strategy Session,’ which was described as follows:

The Council of the Society of American Archivists released a statement on June 2, 2020, in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. The Council unanimously condemns harassment and violence against the Black community in this statement and calls for a space “for constructive discussion toward progressive change in the archival profession and true inclusivity of the archival record…” The 2020 Diversity Forum, hosted by SAA’s Diversity Committee, seeks to provide a collective space for SAA members to reflect on the statement and brainstorm ideas about creating change from top to bottom within SAA, with a particular emphasis on ensuring accountability to reduce harm to Black and brown people and begin repairing centuries of violence committed against Black people in our society and in our profession.

During the session, we split into groups and addressed specific paragraphs within the SAA’s statement. We were asked to consider: (1) what actions can you imagine in support of this statement, (2) what resources (time, labor, money) are needed to accomplish change in this area, and (3) what would accountability look like. Support for BIPOC archivists in the form of honorarium or other payments, bolstering of peer groups, and tailored training for coping in predominantly white spaces all surfaced as ideas to support the paragraph we reviewed. The group also identified the necessity of training for white archivists on white privilege and white supremacy, as well as active anti-racist work within the field. Our group also thought that best practices and revised standards could play a role as it related to credentialing in the field, and to core aspects of archival work like description. Ultimately, for the archival field to reflect our wider BIPOC society in our staffing, collections, and patrons, this work needs to be a priority, funding needs to be dedicated to the work, and we should include more BIPOC folks in these conversations to help us figure out how to go about doing this. 

I attended a number of other sessions, and have barely begun scratching the surface of the dozens of asynchronous sessions SAA released for the conference. While I miss having been able to experience this event live and in person, I’m glad that folks were still able to come together and to do so safely. Given the other crises we collectively face, especially racial justice, it was heartening to see speakers address issues head-on. There is no simple fix to any of the challenges we face in this professional field or beyond, but I hope conferences like this one can be the spark or support individuals need to carry out this work in their repository and community.