2024 Fall Program

CPAL Class:

Managing Ephemera

Instructor:

Sur Rodney Sur

Location:

The Milton Resnick & Pat Passlof Foundation

87 Eldridge St, New York, NY 10002

Date:

October 9, 2024 (Online and In-Person)

Join us for a new CPAL class on Managing Ephemera. Archives are sites of recovery — touch points for connections to the past. This class addresses ways to move through artists' archives — both papers and objects — to create meaning.

This is a two-hour class with the last 15 minutes dedicated to Q&A.

Subjects to be discussed:

  • What is ephemera and why is it important?

  • What would be considered an artifact?

  • Considering inventory spreadsheets vs. data management programs

  • Identification standards: everything needs an ID#, category, description, measurement, and location

  • Digital files

  • Appraisals / Insurance / Valuation?

  • How are ephemera and artifacts useful? And to whom?

About the instructor:

Sur Rodney (Sur) is an artistic collaborator, curator, writer and archivist who has worked managing the ephemera and artifacts in his own collection and notable others: neo-Dada collage artist Buster Cleveland; multi-media performance artist Arlene Schloss; concept-based artist and writer Lorraine O’Grady; and most recently his late partner Geoffrey Hendricks, an artist associated with Fluxus, are among them.