ARLIS/TC Fall Meeting
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Minneapolis Institute of Art Library
2400 3rd Avenue South, Minneapolis.
In attendance (20):
Kathy Heuer, Chapter President – College of Visual Arts (CVA)
Suzanne Degler – Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD)
Barbara Economon – Walker Art Center (WAC)
Rosemary Furtak – WAC
Jen Green – University of Minnesota (U of MN)
Jeanne Iverson – Perpich Center for the Arts
Allan Kohl – MCAD
Janice Lurie – Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA)
Nancy Mambi – Minnesota Textile Center
Kristen Mastel – MINITEX
Joon Mornes – U of MN
Rebecca Moss – U of MN
Amy Naughton – MCAD
Sarah Quimby – MIA
Jeff Radford – Minneapolis Public Library
Martha Ruddy – U of MN
Kay Streng, Chapter Secretary Treasurer – MCAD
Rebecca Thayer – WAC
Jill Vuchetich – WAC
Jodie Walz – U of MN
The ARLIS/Twin Cities chapter held its fall meeting Thursday, November 16 at the new Minneapolis Institute of Arts Library located in the museum’s new Target Wing designed by Michael Graves. Kathy Heuer, chapter president, convened the meeting at 10 am. Following introductions, Kay Streng, chapter Secretary/Treasurer stated that minutes of the June 6 spring meeting at the College of Visual Arts in Saint Paul had been posted to the chapter’s website and thanked Rebecca Moss and Lori Shimer for posting photos they had taken on the architectural walking tour that followed the meeting. The current balance of the chapter bank account was reported at $795.47. It was noted that Stephanie Kays, an ARLIS/TC & NA member for over five years had left her position at the Walker Art Center to attend graduate school in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Her replacement at the WAC, Barbara Economon, as well as Rebecca Thayer, WAC intern, and Martha Ruddy of the University of Minnesota were welcomed as new attendees. In other news it was reported that Deborah Boudewyns recently gave birth to a baby boy and is presently on maternity leave; Kristen Meyer had married and her last name is now Mastel, and Allan Kohl is now president elect of the Visual Resources Association (VRA).
Next Kathy Heuer submitted the new slate of chapter officers for approval. They are Janice Lurie, Chair-elect and Kristen Mastel, Secretary-Treasurer. The slate was accepted and unanimously approved. Kathy will serve out the rest of her term as chair, with Janice taking over in 2008. Kristen will take over the duties of Secretary/Treasurer from Kay Streng beginning in January 2007.
It was announced that the Travel Award Committee of Kathy Heuer, Jodie Walz, & Kay Streng, formed at the spring 2006 meeting had drawn up a document, describing the rules for eligibility, application procedure, deadline, conditions, and administration of the chapter’s first travel award. The award has been established at $200. A copy of the award document can be found on the ARLIS/TC website: http://www.arthist.umn.edu/slides/ARLIS/index.html. Funds are available for the spring 2007 conference in Atlanta and applications are due by January 15, 2007. Note: membership in ARLIS/NA is required to be eligible for the travel award (see following).
Next, two items of old chapter business were discussed: (1) the ARLIS/NA affiliation agreement, and (2) the status of the chapter’s bid to host the national conference in the Twin Cities in either 2010 or 2011.
Kathy announced that our chapter had been the first to sign the mandated affiliation agreement with ARLIS/NA. In short, it states that to be a legitimate ARLIS chapter, an existing chapter must affiliate with ARLIS/NA. A chapter cannot be an independent organization using the name Art Libraries Society. Furthermore, to be a chapter member in full standing, one must also pay dues to the national organization (now $85. per individual).
Last year chapter dues were collected from 22 individuals. Of that number 13 are paid members of ARLIS/TC. This raises the question of how we can continue to include those who pay chapter dues but do not pay national dues. We obviously do NOT want to lose almost half of those in the chapter who do not/choose not pay national dues. Last year, well before the affiliation issue was raised, we had established a two-tier dues rate of $15 for national members and $10 for “chapter only” or “guest” members. This was done to increase chapter monies in anticipation of establishing the chapter travel award. In further discussion of this issue Rebecca Moss suggested the possibility of “flipping” our chapter dues where national members would pay less at the local level and “guest” members would pay the higher rate for the privilege of chapter membership. Kathy pointed out that since the travel award is only available to an ARLIS/NA member and because extra money has been garnered as a result of the higher dues rate required of ARLIS/NA affiliated chapter members, we should maintain the present sliding fee scale. Jodie Walz suggested that perhaps the full chapter membership would be available to dues paying members of the VRA at some point in the future. All present agreed that our local practice of offering a 2-tier chapter membership should be retained.
Item (2). Kathy reported that it was still not know for certain if the Twin Cities had been approved as the site for a joint ARLIS/VRA conference in 2011. She had submitted our letter of intent early last year but knew only that the future venues are Atlanta (2007), Denver (2008), Indianapolis (2009), and an east coast location (2010). Rebecca Moss reported that as a VRA board member she knew for certain the Twin Cities is to be the venue for a joint ARLIS/VRA conference in 2011 and that an agreement had been signed. Needless to say, the lack of communication between the ARLIS/NA board and our chair is disappointing. It is likely that the agreement had been reached at the fall ARLIS/NA board meeting held in Minneapolis and was known by Deborah Boudwyns (chapter member and ARLIS/NA president elect) but not conveyed to the rest of the chapter due to her being on maternity leave from the University of Minnesota. The bottom line is that we now know the Twin Cities will host a joint conference in 2011.
The final item of business was the discussion of possible venues for our spring meeting. It was noted that we should schedule the meeting for late February or early March to avoid conflict with the VRA national conference to be held in late March. Jeff Radford of the Minneapolis Public Library offered to investigate a meeting place in the new Cesar Pelli designed library in downtown Minneapolis for the spring meeting. Kathy suggested that we visit the Minnesota Arboretum and its library during the summer (possibly June).
The meeting adjourned and a tour of the new Minneapolis Institute of Arts library led by Janice Lurie and Sarah Quimby followed. We viewed the reading room and work spaces with their beautiful wood shelving and decorative interior elements that echo Michael Graves' exterior architectural details, as well as the below ground stacks. Sarah discussed her work with the Library's internally accessible website and demonstrated the online catalog.
The information our hosts shared gave us an understanding of the meticulously detailed planning required to create a museum library that meets the needs of curators and museum patrons at this point in time in which, as Janice stated, "we straddle the digital and print eras." Janice and Sarah should be pleased with the results and proud of their accomplishments.
This marks the last time that I will be submitting the ARLIS/TC chapter meeting minutes. These duties will now be carried out by Kristen Mastel beginning with our next meeting. It has been my pleasure to have had the opportunity to serve as chapter Secretary/Treasurer over the past three years.
Respectfully submitted,
Kay Kroeff Streng
Below are some images from the tour.
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