ARTchivist's Notebook: Writing and Speaking
Writing and Speaking
I can't believe I haven't written to you since October! It's been a busy season, with speaking and writing work beginning to take up a bigger chunk of my time, so I thought I'd take this space to reflect a little on this journey (and do a little shameless self-promotion). Hopefully you'll also find some interesting resources along the way.
When I first hung my shingle in late 2020 as a "DEI Metadata Consultant" I had no idea if that was even a thing. I had a vague idea that institutions might need help bringing their metadata in line with their DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) goals, but I didn't really know what the work might look like. As it turns out, it's been a mix of lots of things, from developing custom taxonomies and metadata schemas to straight-up data clean up and normalization. I'm even in the midst of processing a paper collection! Most (but not all) of these projects have had a social justice or reparative angle, but the type of work I have consistently come back to is writing and speaking. I write as part of my work, of course, creating documentation, work plans, etc. and speak regularly in webinars and trainings. But I have also quickly learned that in order to keep doing the metadata work—to find that next gig—I have to keep writing and speaking publicly, whether it is a project proposal, a conference paper, or ahem, a newsletter.
(I recently added a "Writing & Speaking" page to my website to keep track of these activities, and will try to do a better job of sprinkling them in to these newsletters.)
On Monday I participated in the panel "Writing for Archivists," sponsored by the Society of American Archivists' Archivists and Archives of Color Section and Students and New Archives Professionals Section. It was so fun to talk shop and trade insights and resources with Joyce Gabiola, Yvette Ramirez, and Kristina Santiago. They all had great suggestions of places to publish and learn beyond the obvious, including WOC+Lib, up//root, Latinas in Journalism Mentorship Program, Momus Critical Writing Fellowship, and Opportunities of the Week. I forgot to mention it during the panel, but Metadata Learning & Unlearning, the Curationist.org publication I've been helping to edit will hopefully be returning soon. We publish posts at the intersections of metadata, social justice, and OER (Open Educational Resources). Suffice to say, you don't have to write an academic research paper to publish or foster discussion around archives and archivists. We all have something to contribute; it's just a matter of finding the right venue.
Speaking of Curationist, back in December I was a panelist for its online launch event, “Reimagining Art and Culture." It was such a pleasure to see this project, which I've been working on for 2 years now, finally come to life! It's still a work in progress, but it's cool to see it uniting open access content from nine different museums, all in one place, all free to use.
Earlier this month I spoke about DEI and custom taxonomies for museums on the panel “Words Really Do Matter,” a part of DAM and Museums 2023, and wrote my first LinkedIn article, “The Case for Custom DEI Taxonomies In Your Museum DAM,” to support it. Also in the DAM space, I collaborated with Tenovos on Inclusive Metadata: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Digital Asset Management, which is a more general guide to making your metadata more respectful and accurate, no matter what your content.
Oh, and I still write about art.
The turn of the year also brought a couple of art writing opportunities. If you read my last newsletter, you already know about the Ireicho, a book-as-monument to the 125,302 Japanese American incarcerated during WWII. I wrote about the community's reception of the project for Hyperallergic. At the risk of seeming to be on a Japanese American kick, I also wrote about Kelly Akashi's luminous work for the LA Times. If you have occasion to visit the San Jose Museum of Art, I highly recommend her survey exhibition up through May 21.
Still to come...
This Friday, I'll be joining my Curationist co-conspirators, the amazing Ravon Ruffin, Amanda Acosta, and Christina Stone for “Roundtable and Workshop: Curationist.org,” at the online symposium Terms of Art: Design, Description, and Discovery in Cataloging. Sponsored by The Hood Museum of Art and Dartmouth Research Computing, it takes place February 22-24 and registration is free. For anyone interested in social justice and museum metadata, this one's for you!
In April I'll be presenting with my Penn State team for “Amplifying Access to Feminist Art: Cross-Institutional Collaboration to Create the Judy Chicago Research Portal,” at the Art Libraries Society of North America Annual Conference, April 18-21 in Mexico City! I've never been to Mexico City, so please let me know if you have any must-see (or must-eat) recommendations.
And in July, collaborator Stephanie Luke and I will be presenting our research into reparative description practices at ARCHIVES*RECORDS, SAA's annual meeting in Washington, DC. More to come on that one—my first academic article.
I really encourage you to get out there and start sharing whatever you find important and interesting. May your writing and speaking efforts be fruitful!
Image captions
Top: Ryusen, "Writing Utensils," ivory netsuke, mid-19th century, Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art via Curationist. Public domain.
Middle: Screenshot of Curationist.org. Accessed February 21, 2023.
Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or questions about this issue, please feel free to get in touch. Or follow me on LinkedIn.
ARTchivist's Notebook is an occasional newsletter musing on the intersection of archives, art, and social justice by me, Sharon Mizota, DEI metadata consultant and art writer.
I help museums, archives, libraries, and media organizations transform and share their metadata to achieve greater diversity, equity, and inclusion. Contact me to discuss your metadata project today.