The Spencer Art Reference Library

Last updated
Spencer Art Reference Library
Spencer Art Reference Library Reading Room.jpg
Spencer Art Reference Library Reading Room
The Spencer Art Reference Library
39°02′42″N94°34′51″W / 39.0449664°N 94.5809582°W / 39.0449664; -94.5809582
Location Kansas City, Missouri
Type special library (visual arts)
Established1962
Collection
Size264,000
Access and use
Circulation2,500 transactions
Other information
DirectorMarilyn Carbonell
Website nelson-atkins.org/library/
The library is housed on the second floor of the Bloch Building Nelson-night-lens.jpg
The library is housed on the second floor of the Bloch Building

The Spencer Art Reference Library (SARL) is a library housed in the Bloch Building of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, in the United States. Its collection of over 260,000 visual arts related resources support the work of the museum. [1]

Contents

Architecture

Plans for a library were included in the original design for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, however, the Kenneth and Helen Spencer Art Reference Library did not officially open until 1962. [2] The library's growing collection necessitated an expansion in 1977 which was led by Helen Spencer. [2] The library was again expanded in June 2007 as part of the Bloch Building expansion led by architect Steven Holl.

Collection

The library's collection currently holds 264,000 volumes covering the history of art and other topics to support the museum's art collections. [1] In addition to books, the library provides access to arts journals, auction price indexes, online art research resources. Access to these collections is provided via the library's online catalog. [3]

Services

The library operates as reference library to members of the public, as well as a service to museum staff. It provides reference assistance in person, by email and phone. [1] [2] For teachers and college faculty members, the library supports personal learning/research goals in the visual arts. The library also hosts educational events including

The Archives

The library hosts the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art archives which include correspondence, memoranda, and other records relating to the building, staffing and development of the collections of the museum, the Nelson Gallery Foundation and related organizations. [4] Among these major record groups and collections are the William Rockhill Nelson Trust Records, the Paul Gardner Papers, the Director's Office Records, the Laurence Sickman Papers and the Friends of Art Records. [4] Various administrative and curatorial records are held in the archives as well, which include documentation of the museum's acquisitions, exhibitions, and educational programs. [4]

Artists' File Initiative

The Artist File Initiative was established in 2015 by Marilyn Carbonell, the Head of Library Services. [5] Carbonell works with Kansas City artists documenting the careers of the creative community to preserve their legacy. [5] The files are cataloged in the library.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art</span> Art museum in Kansas City, Missouri

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, known for its encyclopedic collection of art from nearly every continent and culture, and especially for its extensive collection of Asian art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Holl</span> American architect

Steven Holl is a New York-based American architect and watercolorist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spencer Museum of Art</span> Art museum in Lawrence, Kansas

The Spencer Museum of Art is an art museum operated by the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Spencer Museum seeks to "...present its collection as a living archive that motivates object-centered research and teaching, creative work, and transformative public dialogue."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Bloch</span> American artist

Albert Bloch was an American Modernist artist and the only American artist associated with Der Blaue Reiter, a group of early 20th-century European modernists.

Hugh Merrill was an American artist, recognized internationally in the contemporary printmaking community. He has written articles on the redefinition of art, printmaking, and education and has taught and lectured on printmaking at over 75 universities, colleges, and schools worldwide.

Ralph Tracy "Ted" Coe was a notable art collector and scholar, best known for developing modern appreciation of Native American art. "He was kind of the beginning player, enormously significant in the growth of appreciation of Native American art in the 20th century", noted a curator from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arizona State University Art Museum</span> Art museum in Tempe, Arizona

The Arizona State University Art Museum is an art museum operated by Arizona State University, located on its main campus in Tempe, Arizona. The Art Museum has some 12,000 objects in its permanent collection and describes its primary focuses as contemporary art, including new media and "innovative methods of presentation"; crafts, with an emphasis on American ceramics; historic and contemporary prints; art from Arizona and the Southwestern United States, with an emphasis on Latino artists, and art of the Americas, with one historic American pieces and modernist and contemporary Latin American works.

Sallie Casey Thayer, née Casey was a Kansas City art collector and advocate. Her diverse collection of fine and decorative art became the founding gift of the Spencer Museum of Art.

Michael Vance Toombs is an American artist based in Kansas City. He is a painter, arts educator, and arts community project director. Toombs is specifically known for his interactive community murals in Kansas City, Missouri. Toombs is the founder of Storytellers Inc., an artists collective that designs and implements work with inner city youth and children in urban communities in Kansas and Missouri.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artists' File Initiative</span>

Established in 2015, the Artists' File Initiative (AFI) is an archival project located in The Spencer Art Reference Library at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Douglas Patrick</span> American painter

John Douglas Patrick was an American painter.

The Kenneth Spencer Research Library is a library at the University of Kansas (KU) in Lawrence. Completed and dedicated in 1968, the library houses special collections materials including rare books, maps, archives, and photographs. The library is open to members of the public and is not limited to students and faculty members at KU.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NedRa Bonds</span>

NedRa Bonds is an American quilter, activist, and retired teacher, born and raised in the historic Quindaro neighborhood in Kansas City, Kansas. Bonds creates quilts and mixed media fiber dolls using fabric, beads, and symbolism to explore issues dealing with human rights, race, women, politics, and the environment. She is best known for her Quindaro Quilt, a quilt measuring 4 by 6 feet, detailing the important history of the Quindaro neighborhood and its role as part of the National Underground Railroad System of Historic Trails. As a community activist and educator, Bonds advocates for legislation, taught workshops locally and internationally, and attended the Earth Summit Conference on Environment and Development of the United Nations as a delegate in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. Bonds is a practicing artist and retired teacher in Kansas City, Kansas. Her recent projects include her Common Threads quilt, commissioned by the Kansas City Chiefs for their Arrowhead Arts Collection, the Wak’ó Mujeres Phụ nữ Women Mural collaboration, sponsored by the Charlotte Street Foundation's Rocket Grant Program, in Lawrence, Kansas, and her recent cancer project. Bonds was appointed to the Kansas Arts Commission by Kansas Governor Joan Finney in 1992.

Deborah Dancy, also known as Deborah Muirhead, is an American painter of large-scale abstractions in oil; she is also a printmaker and mixed media artist. Her work is also known to encompass digital photography. In 1981, she began to teach at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, where she taught painting for thirty-five years until her retirement in 2017. She has received awards such as a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, Women’s Studio Workshop Studio Residency Grant, and a YADDO fellowship.

Diallo Javonne French is a filmmaker and photographer. His film May This Be Love aired on the BET program Lens on Talent in 2009 and won first place at the Urban Mediamakers Film Festival.

Sonié Joi Thompson-Ruffin is an American fiber artist, author, designer, community organizer, and curator. Ruffin creates quilts using fabric, symbolism, and references to African textile motifs that explore issues dealing with human rights, race, and gender. Her work has been exhibited across the United States, Africa, and Europe, at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the White House Rotunda, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. She has been a resident artist at the Charlotte Street Foundation and a resident curator at the American Jazz Museum. Thompson-Ruffin is one of the founding members of the African American Artists Collective, a group of African American artists in Kansas City. Thompson-Ruffin was selected to create the Nelson Mandela memorial coverlet by the South African Consulate and the Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral. Her work is held in collections such as the Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence, Kansas, and others. Her work has been featured on the front covers of New Letters literary journal and of KC Studio Magazine.

Jason Piggie, is an American filmmaker and photographer, writer, and director. Piggie, who got his start in a high school photography class, captures images of everyday life, preferring his art "without enhanced manipulation." Piggie is the owner of a production company in Kansas City, Little Piggie Entertainment. Piggie received the first place award at the 3/5/7 Film Festival in the 5-minute category in 2009. In 2012, Piggie won best in show at an Arts KC show. Piggie is a member of the African American Artists Collective in Kansas City, which was recently awarded a Charlotte Street StartUp Residency.

Ilah Marian Kibbey (1883-1957) was an American genre and landscape painter. Her series Airplane Impressions consisted of paintings of views from various flights she took over the Midwest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex F. Yaworski</span> American/Ukrainian visual artist

Alex F. Yaworski was a visual artist who specialized in Watercolor painting and Illustration.

Laura Crehuet Berman is an American and Spanish artist and printmaker based in Kansas City. Much of her work consists of abstract multicolored monoprints that show recurrent forms overlapping to produce fields of shapes and hues. Her works are in the permanent collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City in 2001, the Rhode Island School of Design Museum in 2012, and the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas in 2016.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Breeding, Marshall. "Spencer Art Reference Library". libraries.org. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 "Spencer Art Reference Library". Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Spencer Art Reference Library". Facebook.
  4. 1 2 3 The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Archives. Mann Made Design.
  5. 1 2 Ouyang, Fannie. "Preserving Artist Legacies with Marilyn Carbonell". Artists' Studio Archive. Wordpress. Retrieved 31 May 2017.