Author: Millie Throp
Madcap. Wildcard. Recluse. Admittedly, ‘researcher’ is not a moniker traditionally tagged on the back of an artist or maker. Hence, it’s with faulty rationale that academics and artists are perceived with separate skill sets, when their modus is often more alike than dissimilar. Irrespective of finished outcome - whether a thousand-word thesis or acrylic on canvas - the work of both scholar and craftsman stems from common creative thinking.
By the same stroke, an educational institution and its hushed acoustics isn’t a setting that likely beckons the visual practitioner either. Their impulse and spontaneity proposing a seeming antithesis to its alphabetical order. Yet, take the New York Public Library Picture Collection as an exception in such case studies, and the pursuit of research bodes a more colourful affair.
Enclosed with renaissance grandeur amongst Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the archive is an abundant roster of prints, portraits, and publication clippings that predate the 19th century. Therefore, inlaid with frames of anatomical drawings, 2000s Moschino ads, and Mardi Gras captured first-hand on film, the resource has ordinarily spurred many monoliths of the city’s art circuit since its founding in 1915. Perhaps most strikingly, Andy Warhol and Diego Rivera.
What’s more, the Picture Collection’s commitment to the arts has birthed a further offshoot since starting their Artist Takeovers in 2017. Inviting neighbouring authors, studios, and store owners onboard as monthly curators of their Instagram, local talents gain exposure by responding to a theme with the archive’s imagery. Ergo, at the turn of each month, motley, handpicked snippets are paraded online for the platform’s now 50K following, echoing the modes of a global exhibition.
So, in the spirit of collaboration, Essential Journal caught up with supervising librarian Jessica Cilne to ponder the rise of the institute’s social presence, amidst a dusting-off of the library’s sepia anthologies. Responding to our queries via email, Cilne shares her doted experiences as a native New Yorker, voicing that just as anyone can become an artist, in our world of visuality, everyone’s a researcher.
MT: With the library traditionally a resource for researchers alone, have you found that the Picture Collection has welcomed another community? Why do you feel these visual resources are important?
JC: New York Public Library is a resource that’s open to everyone, whether they’re visual, or textual based researchers, or both. The Picture Collection is special because it allows our community to have a tactile learning experience with materials, creating spatial relationships and conducting research in a space with like-minded individuals. There, allowing for community connections and discussions to develop spontaneously.
MT: What then drove you to translate this experience onto social media, and has the account grown in the direction you expected? What has been your favourite curation to date?
JC: When we began the monthly guest artist takeovers, the library was already using social media as a form of outreach, but Instagram specifically aligned with the visual nature of the Picture Collection, so it was a natural fit. Now, we reach a worldwide audience who appreciate pictures, as well as each other’s ideas and visual senses. I’m so excited by the way it has grown. I’ve loved every curation we have had, but my favourite aspect has been seeing how personality and interest shines through in each selection.
MT: How has it felt to provide a platform for creatives as an educational institution, diminishing chronological order in place of expression and play?
JC: At our library, being creative and being a researcher are not exclusive to each other. The act of creating involves research, observation, serendipity, methodology, and happenstance. Each monthly curation has allowed users of the physical Picture Collection to express their aesthetic interests, artistic values, agendas, and creative practice as it meets with the resources.
In presenting their finds on a public platform they are allowing for an unexpected yet guided exchange between curator and audience. As a user, you’re carried by the exhibition that is created by the artist, but also become a curator through the outcomes of your research via browsing.
If you’re not local and the platform is the only interaction you have with the Picture Collection, that will be a singular experience unto itself. It’s interesting to consider social media as a starting point for entering the Picture Collection remotely, as a paper-based, analog collection that has over 100 years of history.
MT: New York has a reputation for fast pace and individualism. But would you say this can also be a positive attribute? Would you say your platform has unified the community at all?
JC: Research is often individualistic, depending on each person’s interests and goals, and fast pace is attributed purely to need. But the platform provides a window to what inspires and resonates with others, which helps us build a collection that is more meaningful to our community.
We’re also interested in building community connections, allowing for creative exchange, and meeting visual information needs outside of the physical space, while showcasing the talent of the creative researchers in New York. People discover each other’s work and shared interests, in the same way that those using the collection in person discuss their ideas. There’s nothing better than finding an image and being able to laugh at it with someone new. It feels great to reach a global audience in this way.
MT: Finally, do you think the library’s experimental and progressive approach is reflective of the wider city? How would you describe New York to an outsider?
JC: New York is highly stimulating. It’s full of bright (and sometimes questionable) ideas, brought together by a large, diverse group of people.
It’s such a pleasure to be here as summer begins. Bryant Park, located behind the library, removes the ice skating rink and restores the lawn where people enjoy the warm air on their lunch breaks. The lilies and roses are also beginning to break through. In midtown Manhattan, where our main building is, we see large numbers of tourists. The more beautiful the weather, the more people are on the streets.
One of my favourite spaces is Grand Central Station. The movement of people under the blue, constellation-covered ceiling has great energy. It feels full of buzzing possibilities, continuing the freedom to experiment.