What does Legacy Organizing look like for an artist? Phase 1 Archiving

Written By Gilia Angell

Helping an artist organize his affairs of 60+ years is a big undertaking. We’re phasing it out.

Phase 1: Archiving Paperwork and Correspondence

This client is very lucky, and we had a clear destination for his archives. He’d maintained relationships with the University of Washington, his alma mater. The UW wanted his papers for their Special Collections.

The goal of this artist client was to tell the most complete story of his career through these found paper objects. Like Joan Didion, this artist kept everything: letters, bills, proposals, marketing materials, catalogs, sketches, and so on. So there is a rich story in there of a long career.

We included:

  • Notes and development materials from his many published books

  • Cataloging and photographing over 130 final book illustrations on clayboard

  • Letters to and from friends, patrons, collaborators, other artists, writers, and creatives

  • Magazine and newspaper articles about the artist, and by the artist (he is an avid Letter to the Editor contributor to the Seattle Times!) 

  • Photos of artwork and the artist working, or standing with his artwork

  • Marketing materials and correspondence with galleries, institutions, organizations, and museums

  • Book royalty receipts

  • Records and sketches from proposals, commissions, and work, complete and incomplete

  • Influences–materials collected by the artist on other artists who influenced his work

  • Humanities and Environmental Service Awards, other volunteer history

Deciding what to include required judicious editing. We handled and evaluated each piece of material for its resonance with the artist’s development and career. It involved the heartbreaking decision to dispose of items that hadn’t weathered time well (foxing, disintegration, or pounds of printout research material no longer needed for finished books), and surplussing items that took up space but went unused (dozens of books, large furniture, a concrete chainsaw). We also retained personal family letters, photos, and estate-related papers.

How long did this take?
9 months at 10-15 hours/week, mostly working alone and categorizing items (letters by name, galleries by name, newspaper articles by decade, etc)

First delivery to UW Special Collections: 4 months (Jan-May)
17 banker's boxes 

Second delivery to UW Special Collections: 4 months (June, parts of July, Sept, October)
26 banker's boxes 

Dump and recycling runs: Ongoing
13

Now these materials are available for perusal at the UW!

Stay tuned for Phase 2: Studio cleanup

Gilia Angell