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Canadian art archives: working to preserve Ontario’s visual art records

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Tina Meale
Tina Meale*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto, 140 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3G6, Canada
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Abstract

How can the Ontario archival community best provide comprehensive documentary evidence of activities in the visual arts? A strategy for preserving the documentation needs to co-ordinate the efforts not only of the various collecting repositories in the province, but also of the people within the arts community who are generating records of their activities. Attempts already being made by Ontario archivists to ensure visual arts records are acquired and retained could be enhanced by improved education of everyone concerned.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , 1999 , pp. 31 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 1999

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References

1. Teitelbaum, Matthew. “In the archive: funding the branches and leaves”. Canadian Art Winter 1997, p.50–55.Google Scholar
2. Blinkhorn, Victoria Louise. The records of visual artists: appraising for acquisition and selection. Ottawa: National Library of Canada, 1989, p.3.Google Scholar
3. McKenzie, Karen. “Collecting and collections in Canada”. Art Documentation Summer 1995.Google Scholar
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8. Fonds is the highest level of archival description. It describes the whole collection of documents, regardless of form or medium, automatically and organically created and/or accumulated and used by a particular individual, family, or corporate body in the course of that creator’s activities or functions. (Bureau of Canadian Archivists Planning Committee on Descriptive Standards. Rules for Archival Description. Ottawa: Bureau of Canadian Archivists, 1990.)Google Scholar
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10. Many of my recommendations are based on feedback received from different arts communities, such as visual arts, music, theatre, dance, film. Questions asked concerned the preservation of the records they generate or collect. Also, the Cultural Symposium (1998) held at the Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto and hosted by the Archives of Ontario and the Ontario Arts Council was an important event for identifying issues pertaining to the preservation of cultural records. It brought together representatives from various Ontario University Archives, various cultural repositories, the Archives of Ontario, the National Archives of Canada, the City of Toronto archives, the various Arts Councils and the Archives Association of Ontario. A description of the event will be available in an upcoming Off the Record publication.Google Scholar
11. Blinkhorn, , p.5.Google Scholar