The Wayne State School of Information Sciences’ (SIS) Archival Administration program and the University Art Collection Archives have announced a new long-term collaborative partnership. SIS archival students can now apply to work on various projects for the collection for practicum or volunteer hours.

Associated archival materials often accompany major gifts of artwork. These materials will be critical for future scholarship about the works in the collection. Through this new partnership, students will have the opportunity to digitize and create access for materials from the estates of artists Kathy Clifford, John Egner and John and Christine Piet, and many other Cass Corridor collections.

Below are the currently identified projects to which our archival students may apply.   

Practicum Projects:

• Susanne Hilberry Gallery archives:
  Susanne Feld Hilberry (1943-2015) was a curator, gallerist and collector who had a profound impact on art in Detroit and at Wayne State University. Hilberry was instrumental in the development of the Department of Contemporary Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts and a founder of The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2006). At Wayne State she shepherded the gifting of the James Pearson Duffy Endowment and Cass Corridor Art Collection, and she received national recognition for the innovative and important exhibitions she mounted at the Susanne Hilberry Gallery from 1976 to 2015.

Archival records were gift from estate that need to be carefully organized, digitized and connected to constituent and object records in TMS software.

• Kathy Clifford archives:
  Kathy Clifford earned a bachelor of arts in printmaking at Olivet College in 1971. She later earned a master of fine arts in drawing at Wayne State University in 1974. During the late 1970’s and the 1980’s, her work drew attention in Detroit and throughout the Midwest.
  
  Clifford’s estate has gifted a box of the artists archives. Notebooks, journals, slides, drawings and other materials will need to be carefully organized, digitized and connected to constituent and object records in TMS software.

• James Pearson Duffy archives:
  James Pearson Duffy was a Detroit businessman and art collector. In addition to a $4.5 million estate gift, he donated more than 1,000 works to the University Art Collection in 2008. In recognition of his generous contributions, the Wayne State University art department was named the James Pearson Duffy Department of Art and Art History. A majority of the donated works are from the Cass Corridor movement, which emerged in the late 1960s as young artists living along Detroit’s Cass Ave. created a lively artist community.

Materials related to his major estate gift have never been archived. Binders of materials, photographs and slides need to be organized, digitized and connected to constituent and object records in TMS software.

• Public Sculpture Renovation Project archives:
  Conservation assessment and treatment reports for a major grant-funded restoration project of public sculpture has never been archived. Binders of materials, photographs and slides need to be organized, digitized and connected to constituent and object records in TMS software. 

Alternative Spring Break Project:

Alternative Spring Break (ASB) is a competitive program available to Archival Administration and Digital Content Management students. Chosen applicants complete an intensive week-long internship during Wayne State's spring break in March. 

The following project will be available for ASB 2023: Various Cass Corridor archival materials including the visual arts publication Detroit Focus Quarterly, exhibition announcements and art reviews need to be reviewed, organized, digitized and connected to constituent and object records in TMS software. Applications will be accepted in January. More information to come. 

Activity Award Projects: 

Semester-long projects that will provide a scholarship award are available. Selected students will digitize University Art Collection Archive materials. Artist and donor files contain important archival information that need to be attached to TMS software. Files will need to be carefully reviewed to assess their level of importance. Necessary materials will be digitized and connected to constituent and object records in TMS software.

If you are a SIS archival student who is interested in applying for any of these opportunities, please send your resume to Kim Schroeder at ag1797@wayne.edu.