The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry at Iowa: Increasing Access to 20th Century Avant-garde

FAIN: PW-285126-22

University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA 52242-1320)
Margaret Gamm (Project Director: July 2021 to present)

Preserving and providing access to the Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, a collection of over 75,000 pieces, including artists’ books, typography, and other artistic works that combine writing and images. The project would produce an archival finding aid for the collection, catalog records for approximately 4,500 items, and a website featuring collection highlights. 

The Sackner Archive is the world’s largest repository of material documenting the international avant-garde movement of artists and writers who combined words and visual elements to create a new kind of artwork. Now contextualized by complementary collections of Dada, Fluxus, book arts, and more, this new collection at the University of Iowa Libraries promises to significantly expand the potential for scholarship in 20th Century avant-garde. The Sackner Archive exists as a largely “hidden collection” due to the enormous amount of work needed to organize, catalog, and preserve the materials to make them accessible to researchers, educators and the general public. This Implementation Project will make the materials available to all by providing staffing to aid in the housing of objects, the standardization of metadata, and the creation of new finding aids, allowing improved discoverability for a large selection of collection material.

Associated Products

The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry
Author: Dana, Richard
Abstract: On April 11, 2023, SNAP welcomed a wonderful panel of speakers representing different archival repositories for an informative talk on artist archives, looking at unique collections documenting photographic, concrete and visual poetry, the performing arts, and dance. Presenters included Stefanie Caloia (MLIS), AFSCME Archivist, Wayne State University; Rich Dana (MFA, MLIS), Sackner Archive Project Coordinator Librarian, University of Iowa; Judy Tyrus, founder and CEO of ChromaDiverse, Inc.; Bob Diaz (MLIS), Associate Librarian and Archivist, University of Arizona. This event was co-hosted and planned in collaboration with the Visual Materials Section of SAA — many thanks to VMS chair Stefanie Caloia for helping to bring this event to fruition. This session will be of particular interest for students and early career professionals who are interested in pursuing employment in artist archives, collaborating with artists as donors, or working with unique artifacts/objects and archival collections related to art and artists, performing arts groups, dance companies, and more.
Date: 04/11/2023
Primary URL: https://snaproundtable.wordpress.com/2023/04/18/recap-and-recording-for-snap-artists-archives-webinar-now-available/
Primary URL Description: SNAP Artists Archives Webinar [Recap and Recording]
Conference Name: Society of American Archivists, Students and New Archives Professionals Section

Special Functions Lecture: Rich Dana on “The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Special Functions Lecture: Rich Dana on “The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry”
Author: Dana, Richard
Abstract: Marvin Sackner, M.D., was a Grolier Club member from 1991 until his death in 2020, and with his late wife Ruth amassed a world-renowned collection now housed at the University of Iowa Libraries. The vast number of resources held in the Sackner Archive range from artists' books to reference works to large-scale works of visual poetry, demonstrating the remarkable artistry and diversity of some of the most significant poet-artists of the past century. Margaret Gamm is Director of Special Collections and Archives at the University of Iowa Libraries, and PI of the National Endowment for the Humanities grant-funded project “The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry at Iowa: Increasing Access to 20th Century Avant-garde.” She received her MSLS at UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Information and Library Science in 2013, and joined Iowa the same year. She became Department Director in 2018. Rich Dana is Sackner Archive Project Coordinator Librarian. He holds an MFA from the University of Iowa Center for the Book and an MLS from the School of Library and Information Science. In addition to his work with the Sackner Archive, Rich is the author of Cheap Copies! The Obsolete Press Guide to DIY Mimeography, Hectography and Spirit Duplication.
Date: 02/28/2023
Primary URL: https://vimeo.com/804637239
Primary URL Description: Special Functions Lecture: Rich Dana on “The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry”
Conference Name: The Grolier Club

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