Wednesday, November 6, 2019

From 1976 until his death in 1987, Andy Warhol was never without his camera. He snapped photos at discos, dinner parties, flea markets, and wrestling matches. Friends, celebrities, passers by: all captured Warhol's attention. In 2014, after a competition among a selection of leading American art museums, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts designated the Cantor Arts Center as the permanent home of Warhol’s archive of over 3,600 contact sheets.

In this MCN program, Cantor representatives will present on how receiving this extraordinary archive became the catalyst for achieving a long-standing desire to partner digitally with the Stanford University Libraries and help expand awareness of the University’s research holdings at large. The unprecedented partnership was not without challenges, given the different digital systems, technical requirements, legal constraints, and staffing needs to scan and process over 130,000 images.

By 2018, the Warhol archive ultimately resulted in a multitude of audience interfaces: three comprehensive websites; a 4,000 sq. ft. exhibition at the Cantor featuring a digital tabletop interactive as its centerpiece; a 230-page catalogue; and an undergraduate course. The Cantor’s experience is a case study of collaboration and intense adaptation to leverage the reach of digital technology.

Session Type30-Minute Session (Presentation or Case Study)

TrackSystems
Chatham House RuleNo

Key OutcomesAfter attending this session, participants will be able to better realize the nuances and challenges of digitizing a vast quantity of images, appropriately cataloguing them, and making them accessible across multiple platforms (used by Stanford's museum and libraries). Participants will understand how this type of project was organized, and where the various critical points of adaptation occurred.

With the scanning and cataloging complete, the Warhol contact sheets were deposited into both the museum database and server, which together provide access to the museum’s website. They were also then uploaded to the Stanford Digital Repository managed by the Libraries, which allows for access through the Libraries’ "Searchworks" online catalogue and focused "Spotlight" web-based exhibit. Each site provides a slightly different functionality, allowing visitors to explore the images in different ways.

Within their own institutions, participants should be able to better strategize how to navigate the issues that arise between object ownership and image rights ownership, down to the details of specified digital file types, sizes, and formats. The Cantor, for example, had to solve how to display images online of high quality for research purposes, while controlling access and preventing downloads of what could essentially be considered valuable Warhol artwork for commercial use.

Speakers

Session Leader : Tiffany Sakato, Exhibition & Publication Project Manager, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University

Speaker : Clarissa Morales, Director of Collections & Exhibitions, Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University

Speaker : Peg Brady, Collections Department Manager & Senior Registrar, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford

Speaker : Dianne Weinthal, MLIS Candidate, UCLA 2020, The Getty