Walker Art Center Collections: Expanding Digital Access and Advancing Demographic Transparency

FAIN: ZPA-283558-22

Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN 55403-1139)
Joseph King (Project Director: May 2021 to January 2024)

The addition of a curatorial fellow and five collections and digitization positions, along with the purchase of photography equipment, to digitize over 6,000 objects and conduct demographic research on the archival collections of a modern and contemporary art museum.

The Walker Art Center will hire a Curatorial Fellow (Collections), four full-time contract positions, and a short-term contractor and purchase the necessary equipment to: 1) digitize 6,070 undocumented objects in the Walker’s special collections; and 2) research and compile demographic data on 2,400 artists in the collections. Spanning the early 20th century to the present day, the special collections represent more than half of the Walker’s total holdings (14,000 works). Objects include 8,872 works on paper (prints, photographs, and drawings) and artist books. Lack of documentation has made these collections inaccessible to curators, scholars, and the public during the Covid-19 pandemic. New documentation (images and videos) and artist demographic data will increase access via the museum’s collection website (walkerart.org/collections), and will support a multitude of humanities-based research, publication, exhibition and public programming, and interpretation efforts.