Dates
- Majority of material found within circa 1975-1995; 1977-1989
Scope and Content Note
The Heresies Collective, inc. Records are 17.5 cubic feet in size and span the period circa 1976 to 1995, with the bulk dating from 1977-1989.
The collection documents Heresies' business and financial activities; editorial and publication practices; relationships with the art and publishing communities; and the collective's internal conversations and dynamics, as recorded in minutes and internal correspondence. It is arranged in 9 series.
The Heresies collection is primarily paper based, but also includes artwork in various media, slides, photographs, negatives, and floppy disks.
Oversized files are listed at the end of series for clarity.
Extent
17.5 Cubic Feet (17 record center cartons and one tube.)
Language of Materials
English, Spanish
Abstract
The Heresies Collective was a group of New York-based artists, academics, writers, and critics who published the influential feminist art journal Heresies from 1977 to 1993. The collection contains meeting minutes, financial and business records, original artwork, manuscripts, photographs, press and publicity materials, and a range of materials documenting Heresies' editorial and publishing processes.
Historical Sketch
The Heresies Collective was a group of New York-based artists, performers, academics, writers, and critics who published the influential feminist arts journal Heresies from 1977 to 1993.
Origins
The Heresies Collective was founded in 1975 by a loosely affiliated group of women active in the feminist art movement. Originally conceived as "a voice and a space (publication and school)," the first publishing collective formed in the spring of 1976.
Founding members included Patsy Beckert, Joan Braderman, Mary Beth Edelson, Harmony Hammond, Elizabeth Hess, Joyce Kozloff, Arlene Ladden, Lucy Lippard, Mary Miss, Marty Pottenger, Miriam Schapiro, Joan Snyder, Elke Solomon, Pat Steir, May Stevens, Michelle Stuart, Susana Torre, Elizabeth Weatherford, Sally Webster, and Nina Yankowitz.
Collective Structure
Heresies was formally structured as multiple separate, autonomous collectives.
Invited members made up the main or "mother" collective, which held regular business meetings, determined issues' themes, and administered the publishing business. Heresies' office staff were members of this group.
Temporary editorial collectives oversaw the selection and development of each issue's content; participants may or may not have been members of the mother collective.
Journal
Heresies produced 27 issues from 1977 to 1993, with each centered on a particular theme, such as lesbian art, aging, or racism. Editorial collectives were formed through open meetings; these collectives identified themes, developed starting points, issued open calls for submissions, and selected the issue's content.
Arrangment Note
The Heresies Collective, inc. Records are primarily those of its business office, which was managed by seven different women over the organization's lifespan.
In 2021, the physical order of the files appeared to reflect Heresies' office moves and staffing changes, as well as the activity of past researchers and the previous processing work.
The office files have been arranged to reflect the organization's activities, largely following the order established by Patricia Spears Jones, Heresies' second office manager.
Individual office managers' labeling conventions were maintained, as were files of duplicate information maintained by different managers.
Discard Notes
Items or files were discarded based on the following criteria:
- • Excess duplicates: The collection contained a large volume of copy overruns and duplicate documents, such as flyers and blank forms. The number of duplicate documents within a folder was generally limited to 2, and the remainder discarded. The same document may, however, appear in multiple folders.
- • Documents lacking context: Phone messages and receipts lacking context (such as a folder, date, item list, issue number, or other clarifying notation) were discarded.
- • Empty folders: One empty folder was discarded.
- • Flood damage: Some items were irreparably damaged in 2021 by flooding in the processing space. These discards are noted in the relevant series.
Appraisal Notes
The collection is largely paper-based and contains many of the unstable or delicate paper types common in the late 20th century, such as carbon paper, thermal copy paper, onionskin, and newsprint. Some documents are stained, worn, contain metal staples, or have faded.
Rubber cement was used to assemble many documents, mechanicals, and some artwork. The adhesive has disintegrated in varying degrees, resulting in the loss of some documents' original layout. In some cases, it would be possible to reassemble these works by referring to the relevant published journal.
Additional preservation work is needed to transfer the content of fading documents, replace damaged, fragile, or acidic items, and to repair unstable works.
Processing Information
Materials were surveyed and partially arranged before 2005. In May 2022, arrangement and description to the folder level were completed, and this finding aid was created.
Parts of the collection were reorganized to facilitate research use.
Folder titles are those assigned by their creators, except for the journal files and legal records. These series' folders incorporate the creators' original titles with additional information to aid in identifying context and improve searchability.
- Title
- Inventory to the Heresies Collective, inc. Records MC 1041
- Status
- Edited Full Draft
- Author
- Janel Mittelstedt
- Date
- May 2022
- Language of description note
- Finding aid is written in English.
- Sponsor
- The creation of this finding aid was generously supported by the Deborah Remington Charitable Trust for the Visual Arts.
Part of the New Brunswick Special Collections Repository