GLIRT

Gay and Lesbian Interests Round Table 

Reports

1999
1998
1997
1996

Censorship continues to plague artists, bookstore owners, librarians and the public. Such cases have mounted in both number and vigor since the rise of the conservative religious right movement in the United States and the Butler Decision in Canada. The censorship issue usually involves sexually explicit images and the debate about "aesthetic value" and/or "artistic merit." It is no coincidence that many of the censored materials are also expressive of lesbian/gay sex. There is no better time to continue the discussion of censorship issues we began at the 1995 conference in Montreal than in Vancouver, B.C., the home of the Little Sisters Art and Book Emporium case against Canadian Cus-toms. This session will examine the Little Sisters case from the perspective of the bookstore's owner, a witness who testified at the trial and a lesbian art collective whose works have been censored.

Moderator
Ray Anne Lockard, Frick Fine Arts Library, University of Pittsburgh

Sponsors
Gay and Lesbian Interests Round Table
Diversity Committee

Speakers and Performance Artists
Janine Fuller Manager of Little Sisters Art and Book Emporium, Vancouver B.C., "Little Sisters vs. Canadian Customs: A Queer Case"

Dr Becki Ross, Professor of Womens'Studies and Sociology, University of British Columbia, "Whose Arousal? Whose Fantasy? Whose Sexual Citizenship: Witnessing the Adjudication of Desire"

Kiss and Tell: Persimmon Blackbridge, LizardJones and Susan Stewart, Vancouver B.C., "Borderline (and Disor-derly), A Performance Piece"
 
 

1998 26th National Conference in Philadelphia:
"Pink Papers and Lavender Files: Preserving Gay and Lesbian Art History in Archival Collections"

A session Co-Sponsored by the Gay and Lesbian Interests Round Table, the Diversity Committee, and the Academic Libraries Division Co-Moderators: Ted Goodman (Avery Library, Columbia University) and Ray Anne Lockard (Frick Fine Arts Library, University of Pittsburgh) .

During the session sponsored by GLIRT and the Diversity Committee the 1997 conference in San Antonio, ARLIS members learned how challenging it is to be lesbian/gay inclusive in collection development. This year, we wish to continue the discussion of accessibility to materials on lesbian and gay artists by focusing on what can be found in archives collections. Many institutional archives exclude the papers of lesbians and gay men in their comunities, while others include them. While lesbian and gay archives exist in all of the major cities of the country, many of them do not include information on the lesbian/gay artists in their communities. Furthermore, few people, including those in the lesbian/gay community, know of archival collections. 

Philadelphia hosts two excellent resources: the Lesbian and Gay Library and Archives of Philadelphia and the AIDS Information Network. This panel will mark the fifth anniversary of GLIRT by addressing from a variety of perspectives how selected archives across the country collect and make accessible materials on the lesbian and gay artists in their communities.

Speakers
Patrick Moore, Estate Project for Artists with AIDS - Mr. Moore will address the perspective of estate planning. Janet Parks, Drawings Curator, Avery Library, Columbia University 

Ms. Parks will speak on her collection of architectural drawings by architects who have died of AIDS.

John Smith, Archivist, Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh - Mr. Smith will discuss the Archives and Study Center at The Andy Warhol Museum and address the issues of working with an enormous cache collected by a single artist.

Joe Romano, Slide Registry of Gay and Lesbian Art, Oberlin College - Mr. Romano will address the topic from the visual resources perspective and discuss the unique slide registry that he has developed.

Stephan Nonack, Boston Atheneaum - The title of Mr. Nonack's paper will be "Visual Images Research for 'Public Faces/Private Lives': Boston's Lesbian and Gay History."
 

1997 25th National Conference in San Antonio
"Tiptoeing into the Closet: Que(e)rying, Building, and Accessing Our Collections"

The rise of lesbian and gay studies as a scholarly discipline at some universities has led a few scholars to begin to examine art history and some artists' works from the lesbian/gay perspective. Yet, many art librarians are not informed of this new field. Those of us who wish to collect materials on lesbian/gay artists and art history have difficulty doing so because relevant titles are not adequately publicized in mainstream sources, carried by standard vendors, or covered by traditional reviewing sources. This session is designed in response to the December 1995 dialogue on ARLIS-L on whether or not these materials should be published or made accessible at all. 

Co-Sponsors
Gay and Lesbian Interests Round Table and the Diversity Committee

Moderator
Ray Anne Lockard, Head Librarian, Frick Fine Arts Library, University of Pittsburgh 

Speakers
Lisa Reitzes, Professor, Dept. of Art History, Trinity University, San Antonio - "Reading Between the Lines: The Case of Eleanor Raymond, Architect" 

Mimi Hernandez, Byrd Library, University of Arizona - "Looking for Andy Warhol: Collection Development Resources on Gay/Lesbian and Bisexual Artists" 

Al Willis and Ray Reece, Arts Library, University of California at Los Angeles - "These Are A Few of Our Favorite Things: Titles on Lesbian and Gay Art" 

Sherman Clarke, Head of Original Cataloging, Elmer Bobst Library, New York University - "'If Anonymous Was a Woman,' Who's the Gay/Lesbian Artist?: Access to Bibliographic Information about Gay Art and Artists"
 

1996 24th National Conference in Miami Beach
"Recruiting, Promoting, Managing Diversity"

Against a background of increasing social and political challenges to an era of policies intended to increase the diversification of the workforce, ARLIS/NA finds itself seeking ways to increase the diversity of its membership and the professions it serves. The benefits and challenges of embracing diversity in hiring and mentoring of staff in our institutions will be discussed by a panel addressing the complexities of diversity. Open discussion between panel members and audience can lead to specific actions to help the Society meet an objective of its Strategic Plan: To increase cultural diversity in the profession and the Society as a means of increasing the effectiveness of art librarians and visual resource curators. 

Co-Sponsors
Diversity Committee and Gay and Lesbian Interests Round Table

Co-Moderators
Janine Henri, Head Librarian, Architecture and Planning Library, University of Texas at Austin and Hugh Wilburn, Associate Librarian and Head of Public Services, Frances Loeb Library, Harvard University 

Speakers
Jeffrey L. Horrell, Librarian, Fine Arts Library, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University - "The Americans with Disabilities Act: The Law and How We Manage" 

Jeanette Dixon, Librarian and Electronic Communications Director, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston - "Minority Interns in the Art Museum Library" 

Ray Anne Lockard, Head Librarian, Frick Fine Arts Library, University of Pittsburgh - "The Personal Is Political AND Professional: Lesbians and Gay Men at Work" (accompanied by a bibliography of relevant sources). 

Angela Giral, Avery Librarian, Columbia University - "Complexity and Contradiction: Reflections on a Life of Diversity"
 

1995 23rd National Conference in Montreal
"Queer Customs: Censorship Across the US-Canada Border"

The issue of censorship in the arts is well known to ARLIS members, especially since the closure of the 1989 exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. The censorship of art is also part of a larger heated debate about strict obscenity laws and their effect on civil liberties in Canada. Since 1986, Canadian customs officials have seized more than 5,000 books and periodicals on the grounds that they were considered "obscene," artworks by Eli Langer (Toronto) were jailed in December 1993, a bookstore in Montreal was recently closed, and court cases involving the Little Sisters Bookstore and Art Emporium (Vancouver) and Kiss and Tell (a lesbian artists' collaborative) are pending. It is no coincidence that Mapplethorpe was a gay artist, that many of the censored materials in Canada include gay/lesbian content, and the Little Sisters' Bookstore sells primarily lesbian titles. 

Co-Sponsors
Gay and Lesbian Interests Round Table and the Diversity Committee 

Moderator
Ray Anne Lockard, Head Librarian, Frick Fine Arts Library, University of Pittsburgh 

Speakers
Sylvie Gilbert, Curator for the Canada Council - "'God Awful: The Reception of an Exhibition of Contemporary Works" 

Lyne Robichaud, Artist, Montreal - "Censorship: The Rape of Art"

Dr. Tom Waugh, Professor of Cinema, Concordia University - "Saving Canada from Queer Lust: Reflections on the History of Censoring of Gay Male Sexual Imagery in Canada"
 

1993 21st National Conference in San Francisco
"Art Scholarship in the Closet: A Little Queer, Isn't It?"

The body of literature written in the field of lesbian/gay studies since the Stonewall Rebellion (1969) is enormous. As with women's studies and African-American studies, it is also inter-disciplinary and bibliographic access to it is often challenging. Just as authors of African-American studies materials must search general material published by African-Americans, individuals researching an aspect of lesbian/gay studies must search gay-positive material published by lesbian/gay authors. But few among us art librarians has a bibliographer of gay studies with whom we may consult. 

The papers in this panel will review the discipline of lesbian/gay studies. Two California artists and a scholar will also discuss relevant issues from their perspectives. They have each been asked to address the issue of what art librarians can do to assist artists, museum professionals, and scholar as we work together to preserve a record of the gay/lesbian presence in art and make relevant materials more accessible. 

Co-Sponsors
Gay and Lesbian Interests Round Table and the Women and Art Round Table

Co-moderators
Jim Van Buskirk, Librarian, San Francisco Public Library and Ray Anne Lockard, Head Librarian, Frick Fine Arts Library, University of Pittsburgh 

Speakers
Ray Anne Lockard, "Queer Access -- Outing Information" 

Lili Lakich, Neon Sculptor, Founder, Museum of Neon Art, "The Art of High Voltage: Battling Gaslighting and Blackout" 

Nayland Blake, Artist, San Francisco, On a sculpture for the new San Francisco Public Library Building (in progress)

Jonathan Katz, Professor of Gay Studies, City College of San Francisco, "Writer's Block: On the Impediments to a Queer Art History"