ARTchivist's Notebook: What is helpful?
Some thoughts on helpfulness and a roundup of recent art and archives events and opportunities.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to be helpful in the current moment, where it seems like there’s a new (or old) crisis around every corner. Sometimes helpfulness looks like contesting harmful narratives or reporting on the needs of community-based organizations. But sometimes it’s just getting out there and moving stuff around.
In the past month, I’ve participated in two food distribution efforts to people in need. It’s not heady work; it is literally moving things around: unpacking, sorting, portioning, repacking, labelling. It’s kind of like archival work actually — earlier today I was musing with a fellow volunteer about how pleasing it is to do repetitive work, like archival processing: one item after another after another and before you know it, you’re done! What some folks call boring, I call getting into a groove. It’s also satisfying to think I’m making a small contribution to someone being able to keep food on the table.
If you’re in the LA area and interested in helping out, here’s the info. Maybe I’ll see you there!
Missionaries of St. Vincent De Paul @ All Saints Catholic Church (I’ll be here Saturday, Dec. 6 - they also need Mandarin or Vietnamese speakers)
NELA (Northeast LA) Food Distribution (every other week on Fridays - they need packers and drivers)
This probably isn’t the content you signed up for, is it? I haven’t had a lot to say lately (although I am working on a short essay about the uses of arts criticism in this tumultuous moment — more on that in a future newsletter). As a peace offering, here is a roundup of archives and/or art events and opportunities that have caught my eye. I hope they’re helpful.
Upcoming Events
resilient communities, resilient archives: Protecting Heritage, Memory & Land in Palestine & Lebanon
Looking forward to this online conference highlighting the work of archivists, memory workers and cultural stewards in Palestine and Lebanon as they continue to confront and resist cultural erasure. NEW DATE: December 5, 6 and 7, 2pm to 7pm (Jerusalem). Register here
University Art Censorship Under False Legal Pretext: Trends and Resistance
National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) presents this conversation about recent cases of art censorship on campus and what artists and students are doing to resist. The talk will feature discussions with artist Elana Mann, whose work was recently censored at Pepperdine University, Liberty Welch and Maggie Lawson, student director-producers who were pressured into cancelling their own production by the University of Central Oklahoma, and Ralph Sevush, Executive Director of Business Affairs & General Counsel for The Dramatists Guild of America. Online. Friday, December 5, 2025 (9:30am-10:45am PT /11:30am-12:45pm CT / 12:30pm-1:45pm ET) RSVP here
Additional Resources for Museums and Arts Agencies from NCAC
AICA-USA Distinguished Critic Lecture 2025: Kellie Jones: Body/Knowledge
I loved Kellie Jones’ book South of Pico: African American Artists in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s and can’t wait to hear what she has to say about the theoretical legacy and cultural production of Black women in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in this lecture for the International Association of Art Critics. December 1, 2025, 6:30 - 8PM ET. In-person and live streamed. Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, The New School, New York City. Register here
If you’re in New York City, consider this free, day-long symposium on the work and legacy of influential Chinese American performance artist Ping Chong. Saturday, December 6, 2025 from 12pm - 7pm, at the Ida K. Lang Recital Hall at Hunter College (CUNY).
Invitations to Act
Tell Your Congresspeople to Support IMLS
This week, the Senate may begin consideration of an appropriations bill that contains funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) for fiscal year 2026.
Please contact your members of Congress and urge them to keep IMLS Office of Museum Services funding levels in the bill and to include additional safeguards to prevent the White House from cutting appropriated funds. The American Alliance of Museums created this form to reach your representatives: Contact Congress
Open Call Me: Leave Your Art Text Reading After The Beep
For the art writers and readers: Art writer Greg Allen has set up a phone number you can call and record a snippet from your favorite art-related text, whether written by you or someone else. When he’s got enough he’ll make an art writing mixtape to share.
An Interesting Read
Describing Form and Feeling: Visual Description in the Bertoia Archives
This reflection from Hannah Ledyard, about the affective and subjective nature of the archival description of art, pinpoints the fascinating intersection of art writing and archival description—where I live!
An Interesting Opening
Special Collections Fellow at UC Riverside
An entry-level term position of 1-2 years for a recent MLIS graduate. This position will be a core member of the Costo Baskets Project, which is an outreach and metadata initiative centered on UCR’s collection of Native American baskets. Applications are due by November 23, 2025. Apply here