Pacific Northwest Artists Archive

For longer than 40 years Roger Hull has been thinking about and writing about art made here in the Pacific Northwest, most especially in Oregon.  Since the inception of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art in 1998 he has been curating exhibits of regional work and writing monographs about artists.  This has resulted in a mountain of ephemera at our house (show cards, posters, correspondence) much of which has come in very handy in research and writing.

As he thought his way forward after 1998, he became convinced of the value of archiving regional art in general, and of our region in particular…and he knew that these artists all had papers and drawing books that would need a permanent home.  VOILA!  The idea was born for the Pacific Northwest Artists Archive.  Museum Director John Olbrantz immediately understood the value of such collections, but knew the Museum itself could not house them.  The University was lucky enough to hire the archivist Mary McRobinson, principally to deal with the vast political archival papers that are housed at Willamette (think Mark Hatfield, etc.)  Mary saw immediately that Roger’s vision of an artists archive was an excellent fit for the University Archive/Hallie Ford Museum connection, and the PNAA was born…

For the past ten years the collection has been building and now includes the papers of Rick Bartow, Tom Cramer, Jack Eyerly, Carl Hall, Henk Pander, Eunice Parsons, Harry Widman, Jan Zach and many many others.  There are drawing books, letters, show cards, photos, small art works and the PNAA has put together a fascinating exhibit of a smattering of items from the archive.  This show, curated by librarian Shanel Parette, is on the second floor of the library and will be there for two years…please DO come look and if you come before the end of October you’ll also have a chance to see the work of some Salem artists in an elegant small exhibit, “Insight and Imagination” curated by artist and former librarian Dayna Davidson Collins.  Below are Roger Hull and Mardy Widman looking at the Salem show with the PNAA show in the background.

Let’s take a look…PNAA first:

Henk Pander

Tom Cramer

Ruth Dennis Grover

Robert Hess

Rob Bibler and Carol Hausser’s collection of the work of Nicandsloy

Myra Wiggins

Kathleen Gemberling Adkinson

Jeanne Moment

Harry Widman

Claudia Cave

Carl Hall

Glenn Alps

and the PNAA show includes this nice shout-out.  Though the bulk of the work has been Roger Hull’s…I have gotten interested in including non-Portland local artists…”valley artists” as it were.  Plus I’ve even wielded a video camera on occasion!

But on to the Salem show as curated by Dayna Davidson Collins…(with apologies to the artists for my terrible photographs)

Kay Worthington

Nancy Lindburg

Elizabeth Bauman

James O’Shea

Jed Thomas

Charles Hannegan

Kristin Kuhns

Dave Nichols (Nic)

Ann Kresge

Alexandra Opie

Sandra Loy Nichols (Sloy)

Kathryn Cellerini Moore

Mary Lou Zeek

Laura Mack

Carol Hausser

Tory Brokenshire

Rob Bibler

Cynthia Herron

Rebecca Rigsby

Bonnie Hull

Susan Trueblood Stuart

Heidi Preuss Grew

John Van Dreal