The records are arranged into nine series. Series 1: Adminstrative Files, 1974-2013 (0.4 linear feet, Box 1) Series 2: Director's and Chairman's Correspondence, 1977-2006 (0.4 linear feet, Box 1) Series 3: Grant Files, 1977-2009 (1 linear foot, Boxes 1-2) Series 4: Panel Release Forms, 1978-2012 (1 linear foot, Boxes 2-3) Series 5: Panel Transcripts, 1981, 1986, 1988, 2017-2018 (1 folder, Box 3; 0.002 GB, ER01) Series 6: Printed Materials, 1975-2015 (0.8 linear feet, Boxes 3-4; 0.434 GB, ER02) Series 7: Scrapbooks, 1975-1989 (0.2 linear feet, Box 4) Series 8: Photographic Materials, circa 1975-circa 2000 (1 linear foot, Boxes 4-5) Series 9: Video and Sound Recordings of Events, 1977-2016 (59 linear feet, Boxes 6-65; 317.43 GB, ER03-ER04)
Access Note / Rights:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Summary:
The records of Artists Talk on Art (ATOA) measure 64.4 linear feet and 317.43 gigabytes and date from circa 1974-2018. The bulk of the records consist of extensive video and sound recordings of events organized by the group featuring artists, critics, historians, dealers, curators and writers discussing contemporary issues in the American art world in hundreds of panel discussions, open screenings, and dialogues held in New York City. Events began in 1975 and continue to the present; recordings in the collection date from 1977 and 2016. A smaller group of records include administrative files, panel flyers, three scrapbooks, as well as photographs, slides, and negatives of panel discussions and participants.
Citation:
Artists Talk on Art records, circa 1974-2018. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Additional Forms:
Most of the video and sound recordings in this collection have been digitized for research access and the digital copies are available in the Archives of American Art research offices. Digital copies of the panel flyers and transcripts are also available in Archives of American Art offices.
Use Note:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Biography Note:
Established in 1974 and still active in New York, Artists Talk on Art is the art world's longest running and most prolific aesthetic panel discussion series organized by artists for artists. Founded by Lori Antonacci, Douglas I. Sheer, and Robert Wiegand, the forum has presented 6,000 artists in nearly 1,000 documented panels or dialogues. ATOA held its first panel, "Whatever Happened to Public Art," on January 10, 1975 and it drew a "crowd" of 77 people. In the decades that followed, ATOA presented dozens of panels or dialogues a year, tackling such diverse topics as "What is Happening with Conceptual Art," with Louise Lawler and Lawrence Weiner; "Painting and Photography: Defining the Difference," with Sarah Charlesworth, Jack Goldstein, Joseph Kosuth, Barbara Kruger, and Robert Mapplethorpe; "Organizing Arts Activism," with Lucy Lippard; "The Artist and the Epidemican information panel about AIDS"; "Cross-generational Views of Feminism"; and hundreds more.
Language Note:
English .
Provenance:
The Artists Talk on Art (ATOA) records, including digital files of the video and sound recordings, were donated to the Archives in 2016 by Douglas Sheer, Chairman of ATOA.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
