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LA
as Subject
Portrait of an Information
Community
By Willow Nardoni-Teays
"L.A. as Subject" (http://www.getty.edu/gri/public/lasubject.htm) is a four-year long research project begun in 1995 to bring together institutions in the Los Angeles area to identify collections of material important to understanding the city's past and present states. The project is the result of a partnership between the Getty Research Institute and twenty-five "lending institutions," including local private collections as well as universities such as the Claremont Graduate University. Advisory Forum members have included professors, librarians, and archivists at local universities, directors of historical societies, and museum curators and directors. They contributed ideas to guide the development of "L.A. As Subject," and worked together to discuss preservation of material reflecting local heritage.
This project has brought together such a diverse group in order to "facilitate the critical recovery of historical narratives about Los Angeles." That is, "L.A. As Subject" as a project has sought out "diverse and unique archives and collections" and has recorded their existence in one location, as well as providing access to this information ("L.A. As Subject, para. 1). The collection of information has been presented in several ways.
Databases
One of these is the "L.A. As Subject Resource
Database," which has four "independent and interdependent" parts ("Data
Resources," para. 4). The first of these is the Contacts Database, with
nearly 700 individual and organizational contacts; it serves fundamentally
as a mailing list, but has proved useful in tracking the progress of the
project and generating profiles for reports. The second database is the
Archives and Collections Survey Database, which tracks the responses of
organizations to project surveys. This information was also made into the
online archives and collection directory, and will be discussed in more
detail shortly. The L.A. Bibliography Database contains over 1500 citations
of articles, books, and visual and media arts about Los Angeles. The database
is organized by cultural group and subdivided by topic, as art, crime,
and history. Although developed for internal use, to support the growth
of the project, portions of it were included in the bibliographies of the
L.A. As Subject directory. Finally, the Academic Resources Database compiled
information about classes, conferences, and scholars focusing on the study
of Los Angeles. It includes brief information about the substance of the
work, as well as contact information. This resource was shared with other
Getty programs but is not made generally available.
L.A. As Subject has purposely delved
into areas that are infrequently studied, and to which little attention
has been devoted. Therefore, the "product" of the project, namely, the
compilation of information on archives and collections that are little-known,
is a unique resource. Titled Cultural Inheritance/L.A.: A Directory
of Less Visible Archives and Collections in the Los Angeles Region,
and published in June 1999, it is made freely available from the Getty
Research Institute, and is meant to be used by institutions, scholars,
and the general public alike. The goal of the project has been to increase
awareness, and use, of the material that has been collected specifically
to represent the past and the culture of Los Angeles.
As such, the online database (a companion
to Inheritence L.A., and pictured at left) further makes the information
available. The database, which contains 178 records, has nine access points,
in addition to a keyword search ("Data Resources," para. 2; "Database Search").
The access points range from institution-based (institution name, type
of organization) to the format of material sought (e.g. slides, postcards),
information about the material's content (time period, cultural group [e.g.
homeless, gay/lesbian], ethnic group and economic class of the population
depicted), and the language in which the material appears. The results
appear initially in a list, containing abbreviated information about each
of the collections. When the name of the collection is clicked, the user
is taken to a description of the collection and what is collected, in some
detail, in terms of both strengths of the collection (e.g. "data files
from the Mexican American Study Project"), and what languages, cultural
and ethnic groups, and formats of material are collected. The full results
page also includes information about public access to the collection and
how the information is cataloged or arranged.
"L.A. As Subject" has also tried to encourage discussion about the role of these physical items in creating cultural identity and values. This has been done in a more collective, public way, through lectures, exhibitions, and public forums.
Exhibitions
To coincide with the publication of Cultural
Inheritance/L.A. on May 22, 1999, a symposium was held, "Mapping L.A.:
A Global Prototype" in conjunction with a community exhibition series,
"Community Archive and Collection Corridors in the Los Angeles Region,"
in two locations in the Greater Los Angeles area, one in the Ventura/Orange
counties area, and the other encompassing the city of Los Angeles ("Community
Exhibitions, para. 1-2). The exhibitions highlighted the various small
collections that are the focus of the "L.A. As Subject" project. In these
two exhibitions, material from areas with close geographic proximity was
brought together, and served to create a context of both contrast and similarities
between material. The material displayed in each exhibition was related
to the geographic area in which the exhibition was held, and revealed the
ways in which material objects reflected the culture of the areas.
Twenty-six organizations were involved
in bringing the exhibition to the public, including the Getty Research
Institute and the Claremont Graduate University. It was material from these
lending partners that was put on display. The displays were created to
make a representation of the content of the collections held in the area.
To make this possible, "curatorial teams" at each site, made up of one
curator from the site, two guest curators from the Advisory Forum (as discussed
previously, these include local professors, museum curators, and other
"information professionals"), and student assitants from Claremont Graduate
University, worked to create, first and foremost, a clear "voice" of the
local material ("Community Exhibitions," para. 3).
"In an unusual move, the directory's creators
asked the administrators of the archives and collections to describe them
as they saw fit. One result of the project, according to [Robert G.] Marshall
[head of the Advisory Forum as well as head of the Urban Archives at Cal
State Northridge], was that the so-called elite institutions and the less
famous ones found they had much in common. New alliances and relationships
among the institutions are being formed" (Biederman, para. 15-16). The
goal of this project was to present the communities through the material.
The curatorial teams also created a dialogue between the objects and the
context – both the historical context of the object and the contemporary
context of the viewer.
Public Forums
Another important component of the "L.A.
As Subject" project is encouraging and providing a forum for community
dialogue. "L.A. as Subject is committed to involving diverse community
and academic audiences in the dialogue and examination of important issues
concerning the Los Angeles region. This project is fundamentally research
based with an emphasis on research development," with the aim of "incorporat[ing]
the public into the research process…through dialogue between the institutional
researcher and the audience" ("Public Dialogue," para. 1). To this end,
three series of lectures and discussions were created to contribute to
the process both intellectually, through the exchange of ideas, and through
the documentation of the exchanges and commitment to a physical media.
That is, an archive of the public forums was produced. Additionally, some
sessions used videoconferencing to allow remote participation: "Mapping
L.A.: A Global Prototype" (held June 7-8, 1999) was broadcast to the Czech
Republic ("Public Dialogue," para. 17).
The first series, "L.A. Archived and Collections: In Search of Urban Histories," was produced in 1995 in collaboration with another Getty Research Institute (GRI) project, "Imaging the City in the Americas." The goal of this series was to explore "the formation and display of urban identities" through the institutional, scholarly, and private archives and collections, and the various purposes each serves ("Public Dialogue, para. 2). Partners were other GRI programs. Topics for discussion included the role of public repositories in shaping the nature of archives and the availability of material, how the material that is available about Los Angeles shapes our understanding of the city, and evaluating the subjectivity of decisions in collection practices.
The second series, held in 1997, examined the "transformative nature of Los Angeles communities" ("Public Dialogue," para. 6). Again, the partners were other GRI programs. Topics for discussion included how community is practiced in the Los Angeles region, the evolution of the city into a metropolis, and how the literature of modern Los Angeles will shape future perceptions of the city.
The third series, presented in 1998, examined the issues of "local, national, and international cultural recovery" ("Public Dialogue," para. 10). Topics for discussion included historical authority in the recovery of cultural artifacts (in this case, early Korean history), the history of Black Theater, and the shared diasporic culture of Arabs and Jews in Los Angeles. Partners for this series included community groups, the Central Library, and Santa Monica College, as well as partnerships with other GRI projects.
Partnership
In considering the partnership style of
"L.A. As Subject," it was difficult to determine what roles each institution
played. Clearly some had more responsibility than others; the Getty Research
Institute and Claremont Graduate University were primary players in the
execution of the project. The project was based on collaborating with a
large number of small, and, by design, little known and under-used collections.
Also, because the project called upon small institutions, and GRI is a
well-endowed organization with the billions of the J. Paul Getty Trust
behind it, it may be unrealistic to assume that any of the individual small
archives could "compete," if I may use that word, with the resources of
the Getty. Specifically, if these collecting organizations had been, for
instance, effective marketers, they would probably not be in the position
of near-obscurity that caused them to be identified for inclusion in the
project.
Clearly, it was the content of the collections that was of primary value to the project, and this was a main contribution of the institutions involved. However, the project did not appear to be one of dictates from the Getty. The contributions of the public in the forums and exhibitions are but one example of how other institutions and individuals were incorporated into the project. Furthermore, the lecture series included partnerships with organizations, such as the Korean Cultural Center of Los Angeles and the National Association of Sephardic Artists, Writers, and Intellectuals. In all, while it was difficult for me to ascertain specifically how the roles in the project were distributed, it seems that the Getty Research Institute took the lead in many aspects of this project, particularly administrative details (such as publishing the resultant print book, Cultural Inheritance/L.A.), but the smaller organizations were had varying degrees and varying types of participation, and contributions of the public were incorporated into the development of the project as a whole.
Evaluation
Evaluating the success of this project
was also challenging. In terms of my subjective measures, it seems like
any publicity on these matters is better than what existed before. Specifically,
that this collaboration resulted in a resource which presented information
about relatively obscure, but useful, collections seems to me to be in
and of itself a success. And considering that primary material is not required
or desired by many in the population, saturation of the airwaves with advertising
is not appropriate. However, aside from my enthusiasm for this collection,
I found several markers of the success of "L.A. As Subject":
- the public lectures: over the course of three years, public lectures were held, including scholars, cultural leaders, and other community members as speakers, and the general public as audience members
- the exhibitions: the 1999 exhibition, in two locations, of artifacts pooled from partner institutions provided an opportunity for twenty-six institutions to interact with each other and with the public
- the availability of the material: the print resource manual, Cultural Inheritance/L.A. and the online database are made freely available to the public, including institutions with an interest in the material
- the coverage of the project in the media: the Getty's activities, including their many outreach and electronic projects receive coverage in the local press as well as throughout the country. The Los Angeles Times, for example, highlighted the usefulness of the project in raising awareness of unique archives, with more robust collections than large local institutions.
Bibliography
Beiderman, Patricia Ward. "Getty Provides Higher Profile for Smaller Archives," Los Angeles Times, June 7, 1999.
Bower, James M., Candy Borland, and Naree Wongse-Sanit. "Arts and culture online for education: The Getty's digital imaging initiatives," T.H.E. Journal 26(3), Oct. 1998.
Fink, Eleanor E. "The Getty Information Institute: A Retrospective," D-Lib Magazine 5(3), Mar. 1999. (http://webdoc.gwdg.de/edoc/aw/d-lib/dlib/march99/fink/03fink.html)
Getty Research Institute. "L.A. As Subject."
http://www.getty.edu/gri/public/lasubject.htm and its subsections:
"Collaboration," http://www.getty.edu/gri/public/collab.htm
"Community Exhibitions," http://www.getty.edu/gri/public/exhibs.htm
"Database Search," http://www.getty.edu/gri/public/las/db.htm
"Data Resources," http://www.getty.edu/gri/public/datares.htm
"Public Dialogue," http://www.getty.edu/gri/public/dialog.htm
Kaplan, Karen. "Highlights of the Getty's Online Offerings," Los Angeles Times, Feb. 16, 1998.
Muchnic, Suzanne. "Casting LA Culture Net Over a Wider Field," Los Angeles Times, May 11, 1997.
–––. "Getty Trust Reaches Out to Community," Los Angeles Times, June 3, 1996.
Schiralli, Martin. "Quiet Evolution in a Revolutionary Age," Arts Education Policy Review 100(3), Jan./Feb. 1999.
Weber, Jonathan. "Getty in a Place to Break Down Cultural Walls," Los Angeles Times, July 21, 1997.