The collection is arranged as 13 series. Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1980-circa 2005 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1) Series 2: Datebooks, 1975-2017 (4.0 linear feet; Boxes 1-5) Series 3: Correspondence, 1971-2018 (1.0 linear feet; Boxes 5-6) Series 4: Writings, circa 1970s-2018 (2.6 linear feet; Boxes 6-8, OV 33) Series 5: Notebooks, 1975-2016 (2.6 linear feet; Boxes 39-42) Series 6: Exhibition Files, 1967-2017 (1.6 linear feet; Boxes 9-10, OV 36) Series 7: Professional Files, 1969-2018 (6.3 linear feet; Boxes 10-16, OV 34) Series 8: Metropolitan Museum of Art Records, 1972-2008 (6.0 linear feet; Boxes 16-22, OV 38) Series 9: Research Files, circa 1970-2017 (6.0 linear feet; Boxes 22-28, OV 35) Series 10: Files on Robert Colescott, 1971-2019 (1.6 linear feet; Boxes 28-30) Series 11: Printed Materials, 1970s-2017 (1.8 linear feet; Box 30, OV 37) Series 12: Photographic Materials, 1970s-2018 (0.8 linear feet; Boxes 31-32) Series 13: Unidentified Audio and Born Digital Material, circa 1985-2009 (1 folder; Box 32)
Access Note / Rights:
Notebooks in Series 5 are access restricted; written permission is required. Contact Reference Services for more information. 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.
Summary:
The papers of African American art historian, curator and arts administrator, Lowery Stokes Sims, measure 34.0 linear feet and date from 1967 to 2019. The collection documents Sims's career, and her work towards the inclusion of women artists and artists of color into the mainstream art world. The collection comprises biographical materials, datebooks, correspondence, writings, notebooks, exhibition files, professional files that include Sims's files from the Studio Museum in Harlem, Metropolitan Museum of Art records, research files, files on Robert Colescott, printed materials, photographic materials, and unidentified audiovisual and born-digital materials.
Citation:
Lowery Stokes Sims papers, 1967-2019. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
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.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview of Lowery Stokes Sims conducted on July 15 and 22, 2010 by Judith Olch Richards, for the Archives of American Art's Elizabeth Murray Oral History of Women in the Visual Arts project, at Sims' home, in New York, N.Y.
Biography Note:
Lowery Stokes Sims (1949-) is an African American art historian, curator, and arts administrator. Sims began her career at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1972 where she became the museum's first African American curator. She left the Met in 1999 for the Studio Museum in Harlem where she served as Executive Director, President, and then Adjunct Curator of the Permanent Collection from 2000 to 2007. From 2007 to 2015, she was curator for the Museum of Art and Design.
Sims was born in Washington D.C. but moved to New York when she was 2 years old. She graduated from Bishop Reilly High School in Queens, N.Y. in 1966. She went on to receive a bachelor of arts degree in art history from Queens College in 1970 and a master of arts degree in art history from Johns Hopkins University in 1972. In 1995, Sims completed her dissertation, published as Wifredo Lam and the International Avant-Garde, 1923-1982 in 2002, to receive her doctoral degree from The Graduate Center, City University of New York.
Sims is a member of the College Art Association, the International Committee of Art Critics, Art Matters Foundation, and has served on the boards of Just Above Midtown (JAM) Gallery, Caribbean Cultural Center, National State Council on the Arts, and the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, among others. She was awarded the Frank Jewett Mather Award for Distinction in Art Criticism in 1991, a Leadership by Example Award from the New York coalition of 100 Black women in 1997, and a Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award from the Queens Museum of Art in 1998. Sims has also lectured at Queens College, the Institute of Fine Art at New York University, the Studio Museum in Harlem, Rutgers University, and Bard College.
Language Note:
English .
Provenance:
The collection was donated in 2019 by Lowery Stokes Sims as part of the Archives' African American Collecting Initiative funded by the Henry Luce Foundation.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
