WOMEN AND ART DOCUMENTATION GROUPAuthor(s): Edith L. CroweSource: Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, Vol. 5,No. 3 (Fall 1986), pp. 133-134Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Art Libraries Society of NorthAmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27947631 .

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Art Documentation, Fall, 1986 133

has shifted from ethnic arts to fine art and crafts. Most issues do include one article on a textile or ceramic art and, once in a while, we are treated to a discourse on, and wonderful full-color photos of, fans or lacquer boxes or vernacular architecture or some other subject closer to our hearts. The "Orient" of the title includes ail the East, though in practice it is primarily China, Japan, and Korea that are covered. Occasional archaeological reports. A calendar of exhibitions in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Hong Kong and auction reports are regular features. No book reviews.

*Ornament Quarterly. 1221 S. La Ci?naga St., Los Angeles, CA 90035. $21.00.

This lovely quarterly (formerly The Bead Journal) has managed to keep afloat for over ten years and to keep its excellent design and generous amounts of color. Its origins are still evident in its emphasis on jewelry and its continuing effort to publish substantial articles on ethnography and the history of beads from all over the world, but it has purposely broadened its appeal by including material on body ornament of all kinds, especially clothing. Publication reviews and news and reviews of events such as exhi bitions and workshops are regular features.

Papercutting World. 12447 Magnolia Blvd., Suite 111, North Hollywood, CA 91607. Quarterly. $20.00.

Another journal begun this spring, of interest to folk art enthusiasts, this one is devoted to Scherenschnitte, wyncinanki, k/ipning, kirigami, and other forms of papercutting from all over the world. Not "just" a pastime, in many cultures papercuts have religious significance. This first issue includes nine articles, reviews books and exhibits, discusses supply sources, and profiles seven artists.

Renwick Quarterly. Quarterly. Published by the Friends of the Renwick Gal lery, 5340 Nebraska Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20015. Price unknown.

The Renwick Gallery's mission is similar to the Craft & Folk Art Museum's, exhibiting both folk art and contemporary crafts. Administratively, it is part of the National Museum of American Art, an arm of the Smithsonian, which collects in both of these areas. This quarterly functions as a newsletter of the Gallery and seldom publishes anything of a more general nature, but the Renwick's activities are significant in the field. No book reviews.

S.P.A.C.E.S.(Saving and Preserving Art and Cultural Environments). 804 N. Van Ness Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028.3x per yr. $10.00.

S.P.A.CE.S. (the organization) exists primarily to support the identifica tion, preservation, and documentation of what its founder, Seymour Rosen, calls "folk art environments." Much of that is visionary works such as the

Watts Towers, Bottle Village, Howard Finster's sacred garden, and Clarence Schmidt's house called Journey's End, but Seymour has files on over 200 others nationally. S.P.A.CE.S. (the newsletter) is a good source of hard-to locate information on such environments. Books and films noted but not reviewed on such environments.

Textile Booklist. P.O. Box 4392, Arcata, CA 95521. Quarterly. $12.50.

This is a bibliographic wish book for any lover of fiber arts. Subtitled "an international quarterly digest of book news & reviews in textiles, fiber arts, needle arts, costumes & related subjects," it lists over 150 titles in each issue. The issue at hand carries over forty reviews signed by well-known textile experts. The last few pages list international textile exhibitions.

Textile Museum Newsletter. Quarterly. Published by The Textile Museum, 2320 'S' St., N.W., Washington, DC 20008.

A major publisher of seminal textile monographs, The Textile Museum publishes an important annual scholarly journal (see below) and this news letter. Like the Renwick newsletter, it doesn't try to be much more than what its name implies, the news of Museum activities, but those activities are of national interest.

Western Folklore. Box 4552, Glendale, CA 91202. Quarterly. $25.00.

This is the scholarly journal of the California Folklore Society. Though essentially folk/ore oriented, it often includes articles on material culture. Also of value are its substantial book reviews, often on folk art, which take up half or more of each issue and are always signed. In spite of the title, the subject matter is not limited to the West.

*Winterthur Portfolio. "Quarterly" (Nos. 2/3?Sum/Aut-combined, so only 3 actual issues per year). $45.00.

The subtitle is significant: "A Journal of American Material Culture." According to its editorial statement, it "is an interdisciplinary journal com mitted to fostering knowledge of the American past by publishing articles on the arts in America and the historical context within which they devel oped. Arts is used in its broadest sense to include all products of human ingenuity that satisfy functional, aesthetic, or symbolic needs. Preference is given to articles that are analytical rather than descriptive and to studies that integrate artifacts into their cultural framework.... The subject matter is suggested by, but not limited to, the following: artists and artisans, archi tecture and landscape design, technology and trade, fashion and folkways, style and taste, customs and habits, manners and rituals?all relating to how man makes and uses objects to create environments." This is a hand some journal. Lengthy book reviews take up about a quarter of the 110 pages or so of each issue. Some of the most well-thought-out theoretical essays on folk art and material culture and its relationship to fine arts and other disciplines have been discovered in these pages.

ANNUALS Dress. Published by the Costume Society of North America, 15 Little John

Road, P.O. Box 761, Englishtown, NJ 07726. $30.00.

This is an attractive publication with color covers and black-and-white illustrations. Subject matter in the current issue ranges from eighteenth century nightgowns to Iroquois moccasins to a history of the fur market to Peruvian costume. Most articles are about ten pages in length, properly footnoted and include useful bibliographies. Six or seven pages at the end are devoted to lengthy book reviews.

Folklife Annual. Published by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, Sup't of Doc, U.S. Gov. Print. Off., Washington, DC 20402. $16.00.

As welcome as all its other publications, the American Folklife Center's new annual should be revealing concerning contemporary definitions of the field. This first issue calls itself "a yearly collection of articles on the traditional expressive life and culture of the United States ... [which] seeks to ... share the traditions, values, and activities of American folk culture." Of nine articles here, six concern the values of particular cultural communities, one is about the Archive of American Folk Song, and two are about idiosyn cratic artists Simon Rodia and Howard Finster, here referred to as "grass-roots artists." No book reviews.

* Textile Museum Journal, 1977 - . The Textile Museum, 2320 "S" St., N.W., Washington, DC 20008.

This gracefully designed, no-nonsense, scholarly journal comes from the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. Some of the articles are quite technical in their use of systematic archaeological descriptive and comparative

methods; others use traditional historical research. All are impeccable in their use of footnotes and bibliography. No ads, no supplementary material, no book reviews?just the papers, well-illustrated with black-and-white photographs and drawings.

WOMEN AND ART DOCUMENTATION GROUP edited by Edith L. Crowe

With this column I begin what I hope will be a series of reports on various organizations devoted to women's art. If any readers know of regional organizations worthy of note, please let me know; if you would like to learn more about specific organizations, let me know about those as well. I am beginning with the Women's Studio Workshop partly because it was an exhibitor at the 1986 ARLIS/NA Conference, and because it has much to offer both artists and art librarians.

Women's Studio Workshop The WSW was founded in 1974 and is located at the Ben

newater Arts Center in Rosendale, N.Y., in the foothills of the Catskills. As a nonprofit organization, WSW is funded partly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the New York State Council on the Arts, and partly by corporate and individual donations and memberships. Several services are provided for artists, including 5,000 square feet of studio space. About four hundred artists each year (both women and men) use the studios set up for silkscreen, intaglio, papermak ing, drawing and painting, and photographic darkrooms. Stu dios can be rented by the hour or month, and artists have the option of working alone or with WSW staff. Professional instruction is available in printmaking, photography, drawing and painting; teachers include both staff and visiting artists. A Summer Arts Institute offers intensive one-week courses in bookmaking and binding as well as painting, photography and printmaking.

The Artist-in-Residence Program provides a stipend of one thousand dollars per month for one to two months to enable artists to complete a body of work. In the past, the AIR pro gram has supported primarily the creation of artists' books, although WSW now offers residencies in post-production film editing (due to the recent addition of a 16mm editing facility). The ongoing series, "Women's Work in Film and Video," is also shown.

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134 Art Documentation, Fall, 1986

Involvement with the community is integral to the philoso phy of WSW. Artists-in-Residence are expected to undertake such activities as conducting lectures or demonstrations, teaching classes, or curating exhibits. The exhibition program of WSW is called W.I.N.G.S.?Women Invent New Gallery Spaces. It features outreach exhibitions in non-traditional spaces, such as "Art Off Track," large environmental sculp tures along the Delaware & Ulster rail ride. Two traveling exhi bitions have been mounted as well: "Collected Visions" (1983), two-dimensional works by women in rural New York State, and "1984: Big Brother Is Watching," an exchange with other women's art organizations.

From the librarian's point of view, the most interesting sevice of WSW is their Print Center, which publishes artists' books in editions of thirty to five hundred. Over twenty titles are available in a wide variety of topics, formats, media and prices (the current range is $7.50-$600). Both individuals and organizations can become members of WSW for very reason able fees and receive a 20% discount on publications. For information contact: Women's Studio Workshop, P.O. Box V, Rosendale, NY 12472.

Conferences A"The Contemporary Woman in the Visual Arts," October 16-19, 1986, Minneapolis. Sponsored by Women's Art Regis try of Minnesota, 44 First Ave. North, Minneapolis, MN 55401. SeeARUS/NA Update #2 (1986) for details. ASoutheastern College Art Conference (SECAC) and South eastern Women's Caucus for Art (SEWCA), October 30-November 1, 1986, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. In addition to a luncheon and business meeting, two panels are scheduled. "Changing Art History: Female Sensibility in Art" will consider contemporary women artists of the Southeast or historical information on changes in images and research in

contemporary art that deals with female oriented artistic expression. The second panel will explore "Goddess Images, Myths and Symbols in the Art of Women of the Southeast." A'Opening Doors," November 22,1986, Dallas Public Library, 1515 Young St., Dallas TX 75201. Dallas Regional Conference emphasizing professionalism among women in the visual arts. Related juried exhibition, "150 Works by Texas Women Artists," will run for the entire month of November. A"Energy, Revelry, Destiny," February 1987, Boston. Spon sored by the Women's Caucus for Art. In conjunction with the annual WCA conference a national juried exhibition of con temporary quilts will be held at the Boston University Art Gallery. A"Women's Culture in the Great Plains," March 18-20, 1987. Topics include the cultural status of women's art and women's culture within the academic community. Contact: Prof. Helen Moore, Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska, 1213 Oldfather Hall, Lincoln, NE 65888. A"National Sculpture Conference: Works by Women," May 7-10, 1987, Cincinnati. Contact: Patricia Renick, Prof, of Fine Arts, School of Art, ML16, University of Cincinnati, OH 45221. AA videotape is available on Judy Chicago's The Birth Project, which documents that ambititous work. It includes interviews with Judy Chicago and ten of the needleworkers; scenes of the needleworkers stitching; work-in-progress discussions and critique sessions. Director Vivian Kleiman is an award winning independent filmmaker, and cinematographer Fran ces Reid was honored with the 1985 Academy Award for the documentary 777e Times of Harvey Milk. The twenty-minute tape is available for rental or purchase in W or W VHS for mats and for purchase only in Beta. Contact: Vivian Kleiman Productions, 2600 Tenth St., Berkeley, CA 94710 (415) 549-1470. AA new reference book has been published on Australian women painters, sculptors and printmakers born before 1915. 777e Ladies Picture Show: Sources on a Century of Australian

Women Artists, by Caroline Ambrus, includes for each artist: biographical information, important exhibitions and awards, galleries and collections where the works can be seen. Refer ences cited are to articles, books, exhibition catalogs, and even archival resources. An introductory essay analyzes the upsurge of women artists in Australia after World War I and

the decline of their popularity during the Depression and after World War II. The book is available from the publisher: Hall of

Iremonger, GPO Box 2552, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Price is $35.00.

Information Sought AA continuing concern of women in the art world is the imbalance of an educational system in which the majority of graduate art students are women, yet the vast majority of tenured art professors are men?as are the majority of artists shown in musuems and commercial galleries. The Guerilla Girls, billed as "The Conscience of the Art World," are survey ing art departments across the country. Send them data from

your institution on the male/female breakdown in the follow ing categories: chairperson, professors, associate professors, assistant professors, lecturers, instructors, adjunct professors, and emeritus faculty. It wouldn't be a bad idea to indicate part time or full-time as well. I for one have received a number of reference questions on this topic and good, up-to-date statis tics have not been easy to find, so spread the word. If you have data on museums and commercial galleries, that would be useful as well. Send to: Guerilla Girls, PO Box 1056, Cooper Station, NY 10276.

I 1 AAT UPDATE edited by Patricia Barnett

Thesaurus Experts Meeting In April, a special meeting of thesaurus experts took place at

the AAT offices to help resolve issues relating to thesaurus construction and terminology. The most pressing issue on the agenda was the need to establish a policy for precoordination of terms. For example, should a concept such as "Concrete Arches" sit in the hierarchies as one term, or should the user combine these two words from their separate facets (i.e., cate gories containing one or more related hierarchies) in the proc ess of indexing (e.g., MATERIAL: "Concrete" combined with ARCHITECTURAL COMPONENTS: "Arches")? For online sys tems, this facetting of terms was seen as the best solution as long as enough precoordination is maintained so as not to disrupt the integrity and browsing logic of the hierarchies themselves. The difficulty of constructing a thesaurus without a specific application in mind was acknowledged. It was rec ommended that AAT begin to work on user systems that would configure the AAT to make it applicable to outside proj ects and needs.

RLG AAPC Taskf orce on AAT Application Protocol

In May, the six-member team of the RLG Art and Architec ture Program Committee Taskforce met in Montreal with Susan Jurist (RLG) for three days of intensive meetings. The Taskforce consists of Nancy Allen, Pat Barnett, Angela Girai, Bethany Mendenhall, Toni Petersen, and Murray Waddington. The purpose of these meetings was to arrive at a workable protocol to aid catalogers and indexers in applying AAT in the MARC format. The meetings resulted in a draft proposal that will continue to be tested by Bethany Mendenhall and Murray Washington over the summer. This document, including any necessary revisions, will then accompany the AAPC amend ment resolution that will go before the RLG BibTech Commit tee in the fall. The AAPC resolution calls for the amendment of the RLG Bibliographic Standards to adopt the AAT as a national standard, along with LCSH and MeSH, for subject terminology. RLG is still investigating mounting AAT as an authority file in RLIN. Subject keyword searching will need to be implemented in RLIN to accomplish this goal successfully.

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