Collection Assessments
Film strips. Sharon Greytak Collection. Courtesy Sharon Greytak. Image subject to copyright laws.
Know Your Art: Track, Organize, and Assess
Sorting through an artist’s collections is a delicate process requiring care and sensitivity. Filmmakers and other artists accumulate extensive materials over time, often becoming overwhelming whether it’s a couple productions or larger in scope. Enlisting an archivist or preservation consultant helps clarify goals for a maker’s work and legacy. This guidance alleviates the burden from the artist by mapping out the activities to reach each benchmark.
Production and promotional documents, Yudie (1974), Mirra Bank Collection. Courtesy Mirra Bank. Image subject to copyright laws.
Documenting an artist’s assets, empowers the artist
Independent works risk being lost without proper documentation, making archival efforts imperative for their longevity. Many artists store audiovisual materials, production papers, photographs, equipment, and artwork in their homes or studios—some have partially archived their collections, while others are just beginning. Organizing these materials allows for conditional evaluation, assessment, facilitating a repository, and often initiating restoration and reintroduction of the work into the marketplace.
16mm film reels on cores. Private Collection. Image subject to copyright laws.
Ensure Your Art Endures: Choose the Right Repository
Paper documentation: lab detail including color timing information, Sharon Greytak Collection. Courtesy Sharon Greytak. Image subject to copyright laws.
Regardless of the collection’s organizational stage, every artist should know what they possess, on an item level, empowering them to creatively utilize and monetize their library while securing their place in the larger cinema canon. The discovery of what is missing is also very critical. Archivists can often help track down missing assets. All these efforts help ensure an artist’s work remains findable and accessible to scholars, researchers, and the general public.
I have helped many filmmakers establish relationships with archives dedicated to protecting both existing and future productions. I do this independently and through IndieCollect, a nonprofit which supports independent film and its creators.
Projects vary in scale, but I work closely with filmmakers and estates to prepare collections for archival acquisition and donation, restoration, distribution, and exhibition—securing their work for the long term.
To learn more specifics, please visit my Services page or Contact me.