Black Art and Artists Matter: Collection Assessment and Expansion in Watson Library

Africobra and Harmon Foundation publications on view in Watson Library’s 2019 Acquisition Highlights display. All photos by author unless otherwise indicated

Expanding narratives and diversifying Watson Library’s collections are principles entrenched in Watson’s collection development practice. Increasing African American representation in the Museum collection and exhibitions has been paralleled, if not surpassed, in the libraries’ holdings. Titles are selected by Watson staff, received as donations, and frequently purchased upon suggestion by Met curators and research fellows. Watson’s annual Acquisition Highlights displays consistently feature notable African American exhibition and collection catalogs, artists’ books, photobooks, and zines.

Publications by Kris Graves, Nontsikelelo Mutiti, and Carrie Mae Weems on view in Watson’s 2018 Acquisition Highlights display

In July 2020, Watson launched a large-scale initiative to assess and enhance our holdings by and about African American artists and art. In an email appeal to library supporters, Ken Soehner, Arthur K. Watson Chief Librarian, provided the following overview of the project:

"In alignment with The Met’s commitment to 'diversify the collections and its narratives,' Watson Library is working on a project to enhance our collection of research material on African American artists. Our holdings are good but could and should be truly distinctive. […] We are assessing what is already in the collection and identifying books and exhibition catalogs to acquire. […] This is a priority project for us—we recognize the need to have more depth in our collection on African American artists from the late eighteenth-century to today and are committed to achieving this. It is a goal to become a center of research on this broad subject, as we are for many other areas.”

Exhibition catalogues acquired through Watson’s current African American art and artist documentation initiative

The origin of the project traces back to December 2019, at the suggestion of Susan Appel, a dedicated Friend of Watson Library and volunteer in Watson’s Acquisitions department. In conjunction with a self-initiated, self-directed study to learn more about African American artists and art history, Susan began recording artists’ names on index cards and making notes about exhibition catalogs and other publications not held by Watson or departmental Met Libraries. Susan would then forward those titles on to Holly Phillips, Associate Manager for Collection Development and Special Collections, as suggestions to review for acquisition consideration.

In June 2020, Chuck Werner, an equally dedicated Friend of Watson and volunteer, was similarly inspired to check Watson’s holdings on artists featured in the exhibition and catalog, Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art. Susan and Chuck approached Watson librarian Jared Ash, to help develop an effective methodology for their research.

A few weeks later, with critical support, enthusiasm, and dedicated fundraising by Ken, the project transformed into a Watson-wide initiative led by Jared and Holly. The artist research and acquisition sourcing teams grew from one volunteer to five (Susan, Chuck, Suzanne Franks, Elizabeth Schneider, and Jeanne Short) and one intern (Tomina Tang). Watson staff, eager to commit to anti-racism and to centering Black art, artists, curators, and historians across all aspects of library activity, embraced the project: Melissa Raymond, Angela Washington, Tina Lidogoster, John Lindaman, William Blueher, and Tamara Fultz have played critical roles in placing orders and making works discoverable through cataloging; Andrijana Sajic and Yukari Hayashida have provided key support for processing and preservation; and Scott Carlton, Daisy Paul, and Michael Cummings have been instrumental in developing the master spreadsheet at the center of the project, and a public-facing artist index, discussed in detail below.

Representative sample of publications acquired through Watson’s current African American art and artist documentation initiative. Photo by Holly Phillips

The project mission also expanded from being solely acquisition-focused, to identifying and making more widely known Watson’s extensive, existing holdings. Searching Watson’s online catalog for “African American art” or “African American artists” provides the impression that there are between 470 and 1100 titles in the library, depending on how one searches. Not captured in these searches are thousands of titles by and about individual artists, catalog records for which overwhelmingly lack those keyword phrases or subject headings.

In celebration of Black History Month, we are proud to unveil the first iteration of the Index of African American Artists, a public-facing index of artists represented in exhibition catalogs, monographs, and other publications in the Met libraries.The index is rapidly expanding, and currently includes artists of African descent who have lived, worked, or studied in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Custom configured links connect researchers directly to works in Watsonline in which each artist is recorded, as well as to Wikipedia bios and bibliographic/exhibition histories in the African American Visual Artists Database.

To date, Watson staff and volunteers have conducted bibliographic analyses of over five hundred individual artists, comparing publications in existence with publications held by Watson and/or departmental libraries. We have identified, located, and acquired over four hundred titles to enhance the collection through purchase or donation, processes which will be discussed in greater detail in our next post. A substantial number of titles that we have not been able to find yet are accruing on a desiderata list, which we will continue to seek out for acquisition.

In sharing the index, we hope that in addition to facilitating awareness, discoverability, and wider use of Watson’s collection, scholars, specialists, curators, collectors, gallery owners, and artists themselves will easily identify and notify us of significant omissions and missing titles. Offers and donations of publications not held, and/or funds to acquire them, are welcome and appreciated.

To quote further from Ken’s appeal: “With your support the collection will soon be recognized as one of the finest of its kind. I can assure you it will be appreciated and heavily used by Met staff and an international community of researchers.”