Women Artists’ Archive revived

Press, 29 June 1983, Page 14

Women Artists’ Archive revived

The New Zealand Women Artists’ Archive is being resurrected by a Wellington artist, Vivian Lynn. The archive is a register of all women artists in New Zealand. The artists are asked to supply slides of their work, biographical notes, a curriculum vitae, exhibition catalogues, reviews and any other information about their lives and work. It was started several years ago at the National Art Gallery in Wellington by workers employed on a

Labour Department employment scheme, but lapsed when funding for the scheme was stopped. Vivian Lynn recently decided to take over the work, up-dating the information that has already been compiled and expanding it further. “I have been saying for ages why doesn’t somebody get that bloody archive going. Then I decided why don’t I do it,” she says. She adds that in many other countries, such as Australia, similar archives are well established.

The files will be available to anybody doing research on women artists in New Zealand. They are particularly needed for secondary schools and university women’s studies courses. “There are a lot of women in New Zealand whose work is internationally accepted and yet we don’t have teaching aids about their work,” says Vivian Lynn. Although she aims to include a wide cross-section of artists, she plans to start with files on painters, sculptors and print-makers which

are “desperately wanted” by university lecturers and teachers. Later the files will be extended to cover other areas such as crafts, ballet, photography and writing. She also plans to include photographs of the artists’ work and an audio archive of interviews with the artists. The archive will cover artists who are alive and working now, she says. Much historical research has been undertaken by other people already, and could possibly be added to

the archive at a later date. So far Vivian Lynn has raised $lOOO for the work. The grant came from the Advisory Committee on Women’s Affairs. However she says that ?10,000 is ■needed just to get the archive off the ground. She will spend much of the next two months trying to raise funds for the project. Although Vivian Lynn is working independently, the archive is still housed at the National Art Gallery. Any artist who would like to be included can write to her care of the gallery, Private Bag, Wellington.