New York Studio School Lecture Series Archive: Preservation and Storage of Original Audio and Video Recordings

FAIN: PG-52578-15

New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, Inc (New York, NY 10011-9002)
David Randall (Project Director: May 2014 to August 2016)
Chantal Lee (Project Director: August 2016 to April 2017)

The purchase of archival supplies—including environmental monitoring equipment, ultraviolet (UV) light filters, and shelving—to rehouse the New York Studio School’s audiovisual collection of over 2,100 lectures spanning 50 years, and whose roster of distinguished artists and critics supports research into the cultural history of the New York art scene.  The list of guest lecturers on 20th-century modern art, music, and intellectual life includes Willem de Kooning, Sol LeWitt, Julian Schnabel, Elizabeth Murray, Alice Neel, R. Buckminster Fuller, and John Cage.  Notable lectures include a 1968 conversation between Philip Guston and Morton Feldman, a rare appearance by painter Euan Uglow, and a 2006 debate between Michael Fried and Richard Kimball entitled “Courbet Seen Twice.”

The New York Studio School, located in a National Historic Landmark building, has an extensive Lecture Series Archive, consisting of a half century of historically significant audio and audiovisual recordings of American and international visual artists, poets, musicians, art historians, and art critics. The School proposes to use the Preservation Assistance Grant between January 1, 2015 and May 31, 2015 to purchase environmental monitoring equipment, UV light filters, and archival-quality multimedia cabinets to store the original audio and audiovisual recordings. This grant will allow us to protect the Library collections, and house and maintain the Archive in proper environmental conditions. It will substantially contribute to the School’s campaign to establish an archival-quality digital Archive, to ensure the Lecture Series’ long-term preservation and to make it more widely accessible to the public.