Happy Holidays from all of the PAFA staff! The archives and the Center for the Study of the American Artist will be closed on December 23, 2022 through January 2, 2023.
Happy Holidays!
Digital Treasure Trove: Introducing the New Museum Collections Assistant
Contributed by PAFA Museum Collections
The Museum Collections Team is pleased to introduce L Autumn Gnadinger (they/them/theirs), who will be stepping into the role of the Museums Collections Assistant through the remainder of the IMLS grant project. L is an artist, writer, and educator with a background in museum work. They earned their MFA from Tyler School of Art and Architecture and have previously studied at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany, IN and Transylvania University in Lexington, KY. L is a former Core Fellow of Penland School of Craft in Bakersville, NC, and an editor and co-founder of the journal Ruckus, which engages art in the American Midsouth and Midwest.
With a range of experience in photography, design, and file management stemming from their work with Ruckus, L will be helping PAFA with its core goals of photographing works of art in the permanent collection, updating the file management connected to the permanent collection, and finally testing out the new content management system for the new—forthcoming—online collection.
About the Institute of Museum and Library Services
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s libraries and museums. We advance, support, and empower America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development. Our vision is a nation where museums and libraries work together to transform the lives of individuals and communities. To learn more, visit https://www.imls.gov/and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Digital Treasure Trove: Project Update
Contributed by Hoang Tran, Director of Archives & Collections
How time flies! It has been a year since we were awarded the IMLS grant. It seems fitting that I take this chance to provide an overview of all the changes and activities that have been completed so far.
The first major update is in regards to staffing changes. HoJun who served as the Project Museum Collections Assistant decided to leave the project early. In his place, we were fortunate to hire an amazing candidate, L Gnadinger. L is an artist, writer, and educator originally from Louisville, KT who has experience with art handling, writing, and arts administration. We’re happy to have L join the IMLS project team!
We’ve completed the first round of cataloging for all permanent works in PAFA’s collection. The main emphasis for this round of cataloging was to obtain accurate biographical information—life dates, place of birth, nationality, gender, race, etc. This round also included ensuring all objects had at least one subject access point, standardized date, copyright information, and of course, no spelling errors.
Photographing the collection has been challenging due to the staff change, technology problems, and institutional commitments. However, we managed to bounce back rather quickly when we switched to photographing 3D works (sculpture) in the second half of the summer. To date, we have photographed 82 small/medium sized sculptures (21%). In the past, we took 1-3 photos of a sculpture in a frontal view only. This time, we decided to photograph the sculpture 10 times to create a full 360 degree view of the work. We believe this added work would not only help PAFA document the work better, but also help curators and researchers view other markings such as a signature or date that is typically on the back of a sculpture.
PAFA’s legacy files are stored in a complex web of folders with tiff and jpg files intermixed with unconventional file naming standards. L has taken on the immense task of digital file management. Fortunately, L has Python programming skills that proved to be invaluable for this task. After a few weeks of brainstorming, testing, and team meetings, L was able to get a grasp of what the best approach would be.
I’ve been working closely with PAFA’s Registrar, Danielle McAdams, who is assisting with the CMS implementation phase of the project. The data migration and implementation of a new CMS is largely done by the vendors. We are currently reviewing the vendor’s feedback for crosswalks that aren’t compatible with the new CMS and determining if we require anything more customized for our needs. So far, there hasn’t been any major issues.
Digital Treasure Trove: Project Update
Contributed by Hoang Tran, Director of Archives
We are excited to announce the official launch of the IMLS grant funded project to photograph all works in PAFA’s permanent collection up to 2018. In addition, there will be a large scale data cleanup of the collection catalog records.
PAFA is happy to introduce HoJun Yu who will serve as the Project Museum Collections Assistant. HoJun is not your traditional museum professional. His educational background was actually in chemistry which may seem odd but there are definitely overlapping skills, particularly when it comes to critical thinking and analytical skills. For instance, these skills will be invaluable for his work reviewing, updating, and creating better catalog records for PAFA’s entire permanent art collection data.
The other portion of his duties is supporting PAFA’s efforts to photograph its permanent collection. HoJun has a passion for photography which is demonstrated by his work as a photographer during his undergraduate studies as well as freelance work (https://www.hojunyu.com/).
Please check back here regularly for updates on the project.
About the Institute of Museum and Library Services
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s libraries and museums. We advance, support, and empower America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development. Our vision is a nation where museums and libraries work together to transform the lives of individuals and communities. To learn more, visit https://www.imls.gov/and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Archives News
The archives has resumed its operating hours as of November 17, 2021. The archives is now open 9am-5pm Monday to Friday. Please note that the archives is still operating in a hybrid work schedule which specifically means staff are working remotely Monday to Wednesday and onsite Thursday to Friday. The best way to contact the archives is via email: archives@pafa.org.
If you wish to visit the archives for in-person research, please schedule your visits for Thursdays and Fridays. Don’t forget that PAFA’s Digital Archives has many digital resources online as well: https://pafaarchives.org/.
As the holidays quickly approach, we also want to take a moment to outline closures.
The archives will closed the follow days:
- Thursday-Friday November 25 & 26, 2021
- Thursday-Friday December 9 & 10, 2021 (private event)
- December 24, 2021
- December 27, 2021
- December 31, 2021
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Recipient of $95,000 Institute of Museum and Library Services Museums for America Grant
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is honored to announce it was awarded a $95,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ (IMLS) Museums for America program. Funds will support the Museum’s efforts to complete photography for 971 works in the permanent art collection, update and standardize catalog records for the collection, and upgrade the museum’s outdated collections management system and online web portal.
For the past decade, PAFA has successfully implemented a digital imaging program and online collections portal that provided free access to over 90% of its art collection. PAFA’s ongoing work has had a significant impact on the way the museum serves its community in the digital age and is an important educational tool used to support various levels of research interests.
The two-year project represents PAFA’s continued efforts in leveraging digital technologies to expand access to its renowned collection of American Art. The award will not only fund much needed upgrades to its technology infrastructure, but also hire and train one project employee in museum collection photography, cataloging, and collections management.
“We are so grateful to receive this generous grant from IMLS,” said Hoang Tran, Director of Archives at PAFA and will serve as the Project Director for the grant. “Not only will the grant help PAFA promote the preservation of and access to its collection, but it also ensures we continue to fulfill our mission as responsible collection stewards.”
The new and updated high-resolution photography of PAFA’s permanent art collection will dramatically enhance PAFA’s ability to serve its community, particularly during the pandemic when access to digital resources becomes essential.
About the Institute of Museum and Library Services
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s libraries and museums. We advance, support, and empower America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development. Our vision is a nation where museums and libraries work together to transform the lives of individuals and communities. To learn more, visit https://www.imls.gov/and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
COVID-19 Updates
Next week will mark one year that the archives will be closed due to the pandemic. A majority of PAFA staff have continued working remotely, including the archives. Fortunately, we managed to remain productive during this time.
- The project team completed the Rediscovering John Rhoden grant project.
- Completed the digitization right before closure.
- Completed cataloging over 3900 items.
- Completed the collection finding aid.
- Completed the John Rhoden digital portal. We are currently doing a round of edits before we publicly promote and launch the digital portal and finding aid.
- Updated and created a number of online resources on PAFA’s history.
Happy Holidays!
Happy Holidays from all of the PAFA staff! The archives will be closed on December 21, 2020 to January 3, 2021 for the holidays.
COVID-19 Updates
PAFA is committed to the health and safety of our visitors and staff. The PAFA administration is closely monitoring the global and local situation with regard to the 2019 coronavirus disease, COVID-19, including advisories from the World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and local authorities.
Follow PAFA on Facebook (PAFAcademy) and on Instagram (@pafacademy) for immediate updates. For additional resources and announcements, please visit PAFA’s website.
PAFA Archives staff will continue to serve the public remotely by responding to emailed requests (archivist@pafa.org). While the Archives are closed, we invite the public to explore our online resources by visiting our digital archives ( http://pafaarchives.org/).
NEH Grant Project Update
Though the PAFA campus remains closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are pleased to announce that work on the NEH Project – Rediscovering John Rhoden recommences remotely this week!
Due to the present circumstances, we are operating at a somewhat limited capacity and, after over three months away, we will be taking some time to refamiliarize ourselves with the work at hand. Remotely, we are able to continue cataloging our digitized holdings, writing blog posts, and exploring different approaches for curating and presenting the digitized Rhoden papers.
This time away from the project has given us the opportunity to reflect on our work. The preservation and promotion of the tangible remnants of John Rhoden’s legacy is an important and exciting responsibility. We feel so privileged to be able to continue our work to make this legacy widely accessible.
We will continue to update you as we learn more about how COVID-19 will impact our ability to return to the physical collection. For now, we will return to regular blog posts and updates on our continued progress.
Kelin Baldridge
Project Archivist for the John Rhoden papers
ABOUT THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.
