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FOCUS Archives

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Held at: Philadelphia Museum of Art Archives [Contact Us]Philadelphia Museum of Art, PO Box 7646, Philadelphia, PA 19101-7646

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Archives. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

"FOCUS: Philadelphia Focuses on Women in the Visual Arts" was a city-wide arts program that occurred in April and May of 1974. Initiated by Philadelphia painter Diane Burko, the two-month program included art exhibitions, juried shows, panels, lectures, workshops, demonstrations and film viewings, all organized by Philadelphia-area women who were involved with the arts. Most of the women were employed as artists, historians, teachers and museum staff, and volunteered their time on FOCUS committees. The running of FOCUS programs was divided among several internal groups: the Advisory Board, Documentation Committee, Finance Committee, Institutional Alliance Committee, Program Committee, Public Relations Committee, Social Committee and Steering Committee. The events were funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Fels Fund, as well as participating institutions and private donations. Speakers and artists were mostly from the Philadelphia area, although a few outside experts and scholars were invited to participate. Lectures, panels and workshops ranged in topic from race (“The Black Woman as Mother and Artist”) to history (“The Homemaker as Artmaker: The Colonial Woman”) to the realities of being a female artist (“Survival in the Marketplace”).

[Sources: PACSCL survey historical note and “FOCUS: A Brief History” (Box 1, Folder 20)]

This collection documents the activities of FOCUS: Philadelphia Focuses on Women in the Visual Arts, a city-wide arts program that occurred in April and May of 1974. The records date from 1972 to 1975, and include meeting minutes from various FOCUS committees, outreach and advertising documents, correspondence, and records of the grant application process. Despite the relatively brief existence of the initiative, the deliberate documentation of FOCUS programs by internal committees makes this collection an especially comprehensive representation of the group’s activities. Of particular interest are the meeting minutes which document internal debates about which artists should be invited to exhibit their work and who to ask to serve on the Advisory Board and other committees. Researchers may also be interested in the records which document the grant application process and the Document Committee files that provide a look into how the FOCUS volunteers chose to preserve and represent their endeavors.

The records are arranged into three series: “I. General files,” “II. Committee records,” and “III. Photographs and audio/visual materials.”

The “I. General files” series comprises the majority of the collection and includes correspondence, some financial records such as budgets, fundraising materials, exhibition planning materials and event documentation, as well as some clippings mentioning FOCUS activities and interests. Additionally, the grant writing and application processes with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts are particularly well represented in this series: materials include various notes, drafts, correspondence, grant applications, grant award packages and follow-up grant applications and proposals. Also of interest are the records related to the feminist exhibition held at the Philadelphia Civic Center Museum in 1974, which include extensive information about participating artists’ biographies and artwork, marketing posters and flyers, and written communication between the Civic Center and FOCUS committees. Many of the Philadelphia Civic Center Museum files contain information about the Civic Center’s banning and censorship of artist Judith Bernstein from the exhibition and the subsequent protest and backlash from FOCUS and the local art community. The series dates from 1972 to 1975 and is arranged in alphabetical order by subject.

The “II. Committee records” series contains documentation of the major committees involved in FOCUS’s activities and initiatives, including the Advisory Board, the Finance Committee, the Public Relations Committee and the Program Committee. In particular, the Documentation Committee, created to document the activities of FOCUS through reports and publications, exemplifies the value placed on the self-documentation of its activities by the organization. As such, this series, along with the rest of the collection, would appeal to those interested in grassroots community initiatives, feminist art movements, non-profit collaborative activities and local Philadelphia history. Also of particular interest are the minutes for planning meetings held by several committees; these document the lively internal debates and discussions concerning matters such as selection of artists for involvement in exhibitions and events, funding sources and recruiting others to fulfill leadership roles within the organization. The series is arranged in alphabetical order by committee name and dates from 1973 to 1975.

The “III. Photographs and audio/visual materials” is a small series containing some photographs, contact sheets and slides as well as a few audio recordings on 33mm tapes and reel to reel magnetic tape. The photographs contain images of committee meetings, award ceremonies, panel events and exhibitions, while the audio recordings are of public service announcements produced by FOCUS as well as recordings of the various events sponsored by the FOCUS initiative. Researchers should note that the Philadelphia Civic Center Museum files in series “I. General files” also contain photographs, mostly of exhibitions and various artists and their work. The series dates from 1973 to circa 1974 and is arranged in alphabetical order by subject or media type.

Finding aid prepared by Christiana Dobrzynski Grippe and Sarah Newhouse in 2011. The processing of this collection was made possible through generous funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources’ “Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives” Project.

This collection was minimally processed in 2009-2011, as part of an experimental project conducted under the auspices of the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries to help eliminate processing backlog in Philadelphia repositories. A minimally processed collection is one processed at a less intensive rate than traditionally thought necessary to make a collection ready for use by researchers. When citing sources from this collection, researchers are advised to defer to folder titles provided in the finding aid rather than those provided on the physical folder.

Employing processing strategies outlined in Mark Greene's and Dennis Meissner's 2005 article, More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Processing Approaches to Deal With Late 20th-Century Collections , the project team tested the limits of minimal processing on collections of all types and ages, in 23 Philadelphia area repositories. A primary goal of the project, the team processed at an average rate of 2-3 hours per linear foot of records, a fraction of the time ordinarily reserved for the arrangement and description of collections. Among other time saving strategies, the project team did not extensively review the content of the collections, replace acidic folders or complete any preservation work.

Publisher
Philadelphia Museum of Art Archives
Finding Aid Author
Finding aid prepared by Christiana Dobrzynski Grippe and Sarah Newhouse
Finding Aid Date
2011.06.08
Sponsor
The processing of this collection was made possible through generous funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources’ “Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives” Project.
Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research use.

Use Restrictions

Copyright restrictions may apply. Please contact the Archives with requests for copying and for authorization to publish, quote or reproduce the material.

Collection Inventory

Balance sheets, circa 1974.
Box 1 Folder 1
Budget: From committees and "first budget", 1973, undated.
Box 1 Folder 2
Budget: National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts and Pennsylvania Council, 1974.
Box 1 Folder 3
Budget: "Second budget", circa 1973.
Box 1 Folder 4
Clippings, 1974.
Box 1 Folder 5
Contributors: Letters, circa 1974.
Box 1 Folder 6
Correspondence: Foundations and businesses, 1973-1974.
Box 1 Folder 7
Correspondence: Letters sent, 1973.
Box 1 Folder 8
Exhibition documentation, circa 1974.
Box 1 Folder 9-10
Finance report: Press party, interim reports, circa 1973.
Box 1 Folder 11
Ford Foundation: Correspondence, 1973-1974.
Box 1 Folder 12
Fundraising: Letter, first, 1973.
Box 1 Folder 13
Fundraising: Letters, sample, circa 1974.
Box 1 Folder 14
Fundraising: Possible sources, circa 1973.
Box 1 Folder 15
Grant proposal information, 1973.
Box 1 Folder 16
Lists: Foundations and businesses approached for support, circa 1974.
Box 1 Folder 17
Lists: Miscellaneous, 1973, undated.
Box 1 Folder 18
National Endowment for the Arts: Correspondence, 1972-1974.
Box 1 Folder 19
National Endowment for the Arts: Final report, 1974.
Box 1 Folder 20
National Endowment for the Arts: Grant proposal documentation, 1973-1974.
Box 1 Folder 21
News releases and policy statements, 1973-1974.
Box 1 Folder 22
Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, 1973-1974.
Box 1 Folder 23
Pennsylvania Council on the Arts: Grant proposal documentation, 1974.
Box 1 Folder 24
Philadelphia Civic Center Museum, 1974-1975.
Box 1 Folder 25
Philadelphia Civic Center Museum: Artists' correspondence, 1973-1974.
Box 1 Folder 26
Philadelphia Civic Center Museum: Biographical information about artists, 1974.
Box 1 Folder 27-29
Philadelphia Civic Center Museum: Show, 1974.
Box 1 Folder 30
Program events documentation: Photographs, posters, graphic materials, circa 1974.
Box 1 Folder 31
Shows: Checklists and invitations, circa 1974.
Box 1 Folder 32
Tax exemption: Letter, 1973, 1975.
Box 1 Folder 33

Advisory Board, 1973.
Box 1 Folder 34
Advisory Board: Correspondence, 1973-1974.
Box 1 Folder 35
Documentation Committee, 1974-1975.
Box 1 Folder 36
Documentation Committee: Meeting minutes, 1973 September, 1974 May.
Box 1 Folder 37
Documentation Committee: "New document", 1974.
Box 1 Folder 38
Documentation Committee: "Old document", 1973-1974.
Box 1 Folder 39
Documentation Committee: "Old document" notecards, circa 1974.
Box 2 Folder 1
Finance Committee, 1973-1974, undated.
Box 2 Folder 2
Finance Committee, 1974.
Box 2 Folder 3-4
Finance Committee: Brodsky, Judith, 1973-1974.
Box 2 Folder 5
Finance Committee: Correspondence, 1974, undated.
Box 2 Folder 6
Finance Committee: Final report, circa 1974.
Box 2 Folder 7
Finance Committee: Members, 1973, undated.
Box 2 Folder 8
Finance Committee: "Old file", 1973-1974.
Box 2 Folder 9
Finance Committee: Robinson, Tara, 1973-1974.
Box 2 Folder 10
Finance Committee: Scholarship, circa 1974.
Box 2 Folder 11
Institutional Alliance Committee, 1973-1974.
Box 2 Folder 12-13
Program Committee, 1973-1974.
Box 2 Folder 14
Program Committee: Binder, 1973, undated.
Box 2 Folder 15
Program Committee: Index cards, circa 1974.
Box 2 Folder 16
Public Relations Committee, 1973-1974.
Box 2 Folder 17-18
Public Relations Committee: Address lists, circa 1974.
Box 2 Folder 19
Public Relations Committee: News releases and public service announcements, 1973-1974.
Box 2 Folder 20
Public Relations Committee: Printed visual communication, 1973-1974.
Box 2 Folder 21
Social Committee, 1974.
Box 2 Folder 22-23
Steering Committee, 1973-1974.
Box 2 Folder 24
Steering Committee: Meeting minutes, 1973 March-1974 April.
Box 2 Folder 25

Bickley, Cynthia Ann: Exhibitions, 1973.
Box 2 Folder 26
Negatives of panels, circa 1974.
Box 2 Folder 27
Photographs and contact sheets, circa 1974.
Box 2 Folder 28
Public service announcement audio recordings, circa 1974.
Box 2 Folder 29
Reel to reel magnetic recording tape: FOCUS events and panels, circa 1974.
Box 2 Folder 30-31
Slides, circa 1974.
Box 2 Folder 32

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