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The Artist Archives Project: David Wojnarowicz

An interdisciplinary research team at New York University recently launched the Artist Archives Project to advance research on information repositories for the display and conservation of contemporary art. The initiative responds to a growing need for museum and archive professionals to work with artists in documenting their production methods, and building knowledge for future treatment and re-activation of their work. The first undertaking of the Artist Archives Project is to create an information resource devoted to the multidisciplinary artist/activist David Wojnarowicz. Project researchers are working in conjunction with curators at the Whitney Museum of American Art who are preparing for a Wojnarowicz exhibition, along with others familiar with his work. Since the artist is deceased, most of the information comes from archives, publications, and interviews with people who knew and worked with him. The project takes a digital humanities approach by assigning equal emphasis to the content and the database/web portal design. The resource contains technical and historical information about the artist's films, video, photography, paintings, drawings, and performance work. The research team creates transcripts from interviews, annotated guides to other resources, and information regarding the challenges of exhibiting and conserving his work. In addition to artist-specific resources, the project aims to stimulate discussion on topics that underlie curating and conserving contemporary art, including authorship, authenticity, and the ethical responsibilities of curators and conservators. In this article the authors describe the goals, methodologies, and initial results of the project.