Introduction
‘In this moment of peril for our country, we are committed to relationships that honor differences and build alliances. Art has never been more urgent because our liberation is bound together.’
Suzanne Lacy and Andrea Bowers, Performance Lessons. Suzanne Lacy Teaches Andrea Bowers Performance Art, 2016Footnote 1Visual art is uniquely situated as contextual information which reflects a particular time, space and history as it is being made. There are distinct and critical ties between art and ongoing social, political, psychological, and cultural struggles.Footnote 2 Art allows for critical reflection, often where it is most needed, in order to make associations between deeply personal and overtly public spheres.Footnote 3
Since the 2016 US presidential election and subsequent inauguration artists and creative practitioners have responded to the current administration's alignment with white supremacy and patriarchy, erosion of rights and freedoms,Footnote 4 proposed budget cuts and inhumane treatment of vulnerable populations through powerful and urgent new work, shows and demonstrations. Political artworks are being made and disseminated in a range of mediums and formats, both in and outside of traditional gallery and museum spaces, from zines about immigrant detention centersFootnote 5 to an internationally known Trumpocalypse billboard in downtown Phoenix, AZ.Footnote 6 Museums and galleries around the world have hosted countless shows, installations and events, including safe spaces and strikes, in the name of resistance and social justice.Footnote 7 Students in visual art and design programs are also engaging with and creating visceral, politically driven work in and outside of the classroom. Art is not, nor has it ever been, neutral.
This is relevant to academic art librarians because, like artists and creative practitioners, we are practicing our librarianship within a particular moment in time and context and we play a critical role as art educators. What does it mean to work alongside and teach artists during political turmoil? Brexit in the United Kingdom and the Trump presidency in the United States are two primary political events that have promoted social exclusion, which has direct and very personal implications for historically marginalized communities in every corner of the world.Footnote 8 Social inclusion and civic responsibility are valued aspects of arts education and it is often thought of as a ‘location to enhance critical reflection, analysis, judgment and ultimately advocacy.’Footnote 9 By having more honest conversations around what art does, what artists do and how they function in society, we can challenge deeply held assumptions about art librarianship; in particular that our work is somehow removed from the political and social contexts in which we perform it. Artists help others to see more, to broaden perspectives; art disturbs, provokes, shocks, and inspires; art increases flexibility and broadens social skills; art helps us analyze and reflect on aesthetics; art teaches us to improvise creatively and puts us in touch with our creative self.Footnote 10 There is potential for art librarians to claim this power as well.
Art librarians have shown a growing interest in and commitment to social justice work in libraries and this is shaping our individual and collective professional identities. This work of moving towards social justice-oriented, or a more critical, art librarianship in the small universe of art information professionals has come with particular challenges, some of which I will discuss in later sections. During keynote remarks at the Towards a critical (art) librarianship conference in London, UK in May 2018, Emily Drabinski provided several foundational concepts and ideas rooted in critical librarianship, noting that it ‘begins with acknowledging and then interrogating the structures that produce us as librarians, our spaces as libraries, our patrons as students, faculty, and the public, whose interface with the sum of human knowledge is produced, in large part, by us.’Footnote 11
When considering the structures that produce us as art librarians, I am drawn to explore the intersections between art, culture, politics, and power. To start this conversation, I will share experiences to deconstruct and rationalize perceptions of individual and collective professional identity, aligning my methods with feminist scholarship models in which personal experience is of critical consideration. I will place emphasis on art librarians’ relationship to art and art-making and where I see need for critical interventions, given the current context and political climate. This article specifically critiques and addresses the state of art librarianship within North America, given that this is where the author is situated. However, this is a global call to action, with acknowledgment that the political events mentioned above will have long-term, rippling effects on art movements, social justice, and art librarianship across cultures and borders.
Professional identity and reflective practice
Deconstructing, interrogating and rationalizing individual and collective professional identities requires understanding our own positionalities, first and foremost. The ARLIS/NA 2017 Census for Art Information Professionals report, revealed that art librarianship within North America severely lacks diversity, with 89% identifying as white, 85% women, 99% cisgender, 88% straight.Footnote 12 In some ways, I resemble the majority as well as the archetype described in the article “The Legacy of Lady Bountiful: White Women in the Library.” In this article, Schlesselman-Tarango problematizes and unpacks the history of benevolent heteronormative white femininity within North American libraries which continues to contribute to a culture of white supremacy in the field.Footnote 13 This archetype also perpetuates vocational awe, or the idea that libraries and librarians (i.e. nice white ladies) are inherently good and therefore exempt from critique, a concept rooted in Christian ideologies and history.Footnote 14 As a white, able-bodied, queer, non-binary librarian I am learning to resist this narrative as my own through understanding intersectionality, practicing self-reflection and cultural humility, and actively working against and in response to the profession's whiteness and cis-heteronormativity. I hope to offer this critique with the understanding that I am building on the work and scholarship of others, particularly librarians of color, who have called for the need for structural changes, dismantling of white systems of power, and direct action.Footnote 15
There is very little literature focusing on professional identity within the field of librarianship, and there is even less specific to art librarians. The 2017 Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) Core Competencies for Art Information Professionals report is an example of a constructed identity for art librarians, defined by knowledge, skills and abilities. The ARLIS/NA Competencies define an art information professional as ‘a librarian or visual resources curator who is a specialist skilled in organizing and providing access to information on the visual arts, architecture, design, and related subjects’ and details four areas that art librarians need to be proficient in: subject knowledge and expertise; teaching, instruction, reference, and public service; collection management, development, and organization; and professional practice.Footnote 16 A close look at this report reveals that it is broadly applicable but still assumes that there is a universal art librarian, who is tasked with helping, and sometimes collaborating with, universal art library users. Identity is often described and understood as socially constructed and contextual and our social identities and values we hold likely impact our professional identity. However, in professional terms and documentation identity is typically described as static and binary: ‘We are [art] librarians, or we are not.’Footnote 17 In my experience and observations, art librarians have not had universal, or even similar, trajectories into the profession.
At the 2018 ARLIS/NA Annual Conference Siân Evans, Jennifer Ferretti, Olivia Miller and I offered a four hour workshop entitled From the Margins to the Center: Cultivating a Critical, Reflective and Radical Practice in Art Librarianship. We were interested in discussing the evolving nature of our practice, social issues that impact our work with artists, as well as our individual journeys into the profession as part of this workshop. My process of becoming an art librarian, specifically one with a critical, reflective and radical practice, started long before my first professional position as an art librarian in 2014. Prior to that experience I was a consumer, creator, activist and teacher of art. My co-facilitators also brought prior experiences to their art library practice that were influenced by aspects of social identities (both visible and not), privileges and disadvantages. Several of the timelines that were created and shared among approximately sixty attendees pre-dated library school.
For me, entering into art librarianship was challenging due to class issues and assumptions about what qualifies one as an art librarian. This was evidenced in my experience with unpaid internships, which had lasting emotional and financial consequences given my own socio-economic status and background, and being told I would need an additional master's degree in art or art history if I wanted to be an art librarian. Despite these barriers and blatant discouragement, I continued to work towards acquiring my first professional art library position. I already considered myself an arts educator and this is one aspect of my identity that helps me connect with artists and arts communities.
My undergraduate degree is in K-12 art education; the first school that I taught art at was an expeditionary charter school that employed critical pedagogy on the west side of Chicago. This experience transformed me as a teacher because it was where I learned the value of experimentation and student-driven inquiry, in addition to where I received a crash course introduction to critical pedagogy and social justice within an educational context. Teaching became a way for me to connect with and care for those around me and this has been a practice that translates well to teaching, including doing public service and outreach work, in libraries. This experience as an arts educator, that predates going to library school, was far more valuable than anything I learned while in library school where art librarianship or library instruction is concerned.
It is also difficult to discern art librarians’ relationship to artists and art-making at all from the ARLIS/NA Core Competencies for Art Information Professionals report or within current art library-related literature, beyond providing research help. Duncan Chappell has written an extensive review of the literature that addresses information needs, behaviors, and learning for artists and creative practitioners. He points to a small and uncoordinated, but growing, amount of research on artists in contrast to the abundance of literature on art historians’ research needs, which has historically been the focus of art librarianship.Footnote 18 Kasia Leousis writes about outreach initiatives and creating a culture of research within an MFA program, concluding that, ‘The art librarian has a crucial role in supporting an environment that fosters the development of those visual and textual research skills that will serve these students throughout their careers.’Footnote 19 Much of the current literature mentions that artists and students within creative disciplines are prone to library anxiety,Footnote 20 perhaps because they believe librarians are limited in what we can offer (i.e. art history research) or perhaps because many librarians will only tepidly discuss issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, and so on.
If art librarians reinforce the notion that we offer apolitical research help and traditional library instruction, we leave out the very nuanced way that artists and creative practitioners do research and explore politically charged and personal themes within their work. This has the potential to limit or stunt our relationships with artists. Prior to entering library school, I was familiar with the various types of creative knowledge produced and contained in art libraries and archives: zines, artists’ books, photographs, protest art, public art, etc. because I had spent a significant amount of time creating those types of works myself and exploring libraries that provided access to them. I am aware that these works are often deeply personal, subjective and deal with affect, feeling, expression or the emotional in both conscious and unconscious ways. This understanding allows me to empathize with creative practitioners who make work that validates personal experience and addresses social issues that affect them and their communities. All of this has led me to my current understanding of how the visual is personal and the personal is political.
Building on my artistic practice, my recent work as an academic arts and humanities librarian has included promoting, advocating for, and partnering with artists, designers, students, faculty, and community members who are challenging structural oppression and promoting social justice through their art practice. As I work alongside and within my own community I regularly and consciously ask myself a series of questions, which serve as a critical intervention on a personal level. These questions also keep me accountable in terms of where I have privilege and power and where I do not.
– Why am I participating in this project, performance, event, show, etc?
– Who does this benefit and how?
– Am I the right person for this?
– What aspects of my personal identity have influenced my ability and level of participation and how?
– Can I make changes to the ways in which I participate to benefit others?
– Am I showing up as a librarian, an artist, an activist or as a member of the community? Does this distinction really matter?
– Do I have the skills and knowledge to contribute and/or participate in this?
– Are my ideas or contributions supported by theory, professional practice and/or personal experience?
– What do I have to teach in this moment? To whom?
– What do I have to learn in this moment? From whom?
When we stop and ask questions that promote reflection, a practice that can also be done within art education and alongside artists, we can get a little closer to understanding art librarians' relationship to artists or artmaking. Guiding questions, such as these, have proven to be more useful in my context than lists of skills, knowledge and abilities that relate to rote tasks. There is nothing more human than making art. It is valuable to grapple with our ever-evolving individual identities, values as art librarians, and connection to artists in our communities in order to acknowledge our own humanity and subjectivity within our work.
Collective professional identity and structural issues
While there is some evidence that critical librarianship, or #critlib, is shaping a collective professional identity for art librarians, the fact that ARLIS/NA overwhelmingly consists of white, cis and straight women cannot be ignored. As critical librarianship has grown within librarianship as a whole, art librarians have participated through twitter chats, scholarship and unconferences, and have brought critical conversations to ARLIS/NA in a number of ways, including establishing a Critical Librarianship Special Interest Group in 2018, started by Andrew Wang and Jennifer Ferretti. Despite this growing interest, it is important to be intentional in how it is regarded, particularly calling attention to the work of people of color, queer, and trans individuals who have been engaged in this work much longer than the rest of the collective. As Brown et al. writes in their article ”We Here: Speaking Our Truth”,
‘Many librarians of color have already felt unwelcome because the [critlib] movement regularly highlights the work of white librarians without recognizing that librarians of color have been doing this work without calling it “theory.” Did the critical work that librarians of color have done are and are continuing to do in these areas not matter? Why isn't their work being highlighted more frequently, and why aren't librarians of color being seen as experts on these issues? It has begun to feel like another way in which our work and culture are being appropriated to fit into white cultural structures.’ (p. 12)
As art librarians embrace critical librarianship, we need to be careful not to further marginalize groups or individuals by exclusion, tokenization or appropriation. Some of the recent collective efforts within ARLIS/NA include hosting an annual diversity forum, creating a new advocacy policy, and drafting an expanded code of conduct and a diversity statement, which all convey the values held by the society.Footnote 21 Much of this work has been influenced by recent LIS publications that have called for librarians to examine and clarify exactly what we mean by ‘diversity’ and how the term is used in professional documentation.Footnote 22 Brown et al. remind us, however, that ‘equality and diversity do not equal social justice or the dismantling of systems of oppression present in our society, just as equity, inclusion, and social justice do not happen through statements.’Footnote 23
Part of ARLIS/NA's role within the arts community is advocacy, but until recently this was loosely defined. The ARLIS/NA Advocacy and Public Policy Committee's website states that ARLIS/NA ‘monitors issues related to art, activism and social justice in recognition of the important role the arts play in politics and social struggles.’Footnote 24 As of this writing and since the 2016 elections, there have been two public statements that address actions taken by the Trump administration. The first statement on February 6, 2017 addressed proposed budget cuts from major arts organizations. The future of government funding and patronage of the arts are still precarious under the current political administration in the United States. Funding has the ability to affect pedagogical approaches within arts education, as artists and teachers will be forced to choose survival over freedom and this trend can ‘emphasize dominant and exclusive histories and traditions, marginalizing differences.’Footnote 25
The second statement from March 16, 2017 addressed the travel ban and proposal of a wall along the U.S. and Mexico border; it states that such restrictions on immigration and travel would be ‘detrimental to the free and open exchange of information that lies at the heart of librarianship.’Footnote 26 The ARLIS/NA statement quotes and links to the College Art Association's (CAA) statement on the topic as well. However, CAA took their statement one step further, inviting dialogue and action by stating, ‘Without question, CAA welcomes all members and non-members to our upcoming Annual Conference to discuss and debate what constitutes a thriving artistic and intellectual society. Such openness is essential to our mission. We are committed through dialogue and action to help any CAA members who are affected by this policy. To this end, the association and the Board of Directors will continue to monitor and respond to policies related to this order as well as pressure for its immediate repeal.’Footnote 27 Meaningful dialogue can lead to concrete actions and an organizational statement should never serve as the final stop where social justice is concerned.
In 2017 the Research and Information Services Section (RISS) collectively drafted goals that included modeling and fostering a critical and reflective practice. Following the tragic Charlottesville, Virginia events, RISS held a twitter chat, in partnership with #critlib, on white supremacy and public art or monuments. It was critical to continue the dialogue around white supremacy given that universities and art and design schools were questioning and considering how to address confederate monuments within their communities. By having space to discuss and debate these issues, art librarians would be better equipped to participate in discussions in our immediate communities as well. It has been argued that the LIS profession's fixation on diversity and inclusion efforts has limited the depth of anti-racist critique within the field. Hudson writes, ‘we cannot effectively challenge structures of racial domination within the field without being part of larger conversations and movements addressing such systems in other contexts.’Footnote 28 We cannot simply state our values and expect change, we have to do more to make larger systemic changes. Instead of statements we need calls to action and we need to listen to the most vulnerable among us, particularly the library colleagues and artists we work alongside.
Conclusion
bell hooks has written extensively about education as the practice of freedom. She also writes about art and the need for diverse art programs and ‘critical education that would stimulate collective awareness that the creation and public sharing of art is essential to any practice of freedom.’Footnote 29 A better understanding and definition of our professional identities and our relationship to art-making and artists has the potential to help us situate ourselves within current art movements and practices. Through this understanding we can build impactful relationships and social justice-oriented solidarity with creative practitioners and artists who are actively challenging structural oppression and promoting social justice through their work. Work that is informed by or validates personal experience or addresses social issues is not limited to creative practice, nor does it have to be. This practice can become standard within our profession if we work to change the status quo, through exploring the intersections between art, culture, politics and power, as they relate to art librarianship. We can begin by asking ourselves how we are practicing our freedoms and putting our relative power to good use, individually and collectively. Art librarians urgently need to start identifying manifestations of power and privilege in our everyday professional practices in order to develop strategies to curtail abuses and promote positive change by building critical alliances within and outside of the profession.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Siân Evans, Linden How and Emilee Mathews for support, encouragement and feedback throughout writing this article, as well as your continued efforts to challenge the status quo within art librarianship.
