This is post is written by Danielle Nista, a Reference Associate at NYU Special Collections. 

I became an archivist because I had the opportunity to work closely with special collections and be a student curator on two exhibits in my undergraduate classes. So when I was given the opportunity to help teach such a class with Miriam Basilio, Associate Professor of Art and Museum Studies, I jumped at the chance to pay forward the good experiences I had had. While I was nervous about what that would entail, I was keenly aware of the positive impact this work could have on the students.

The Original Plan

The class, Art and Politics: Exhibiting the Visual Propaganda of the Spanish Civil War, was scheduled for the fall semester of 2019 with an exhibit in the Kimmel Windows in the spring of 2020. During our initial meetings in the spring and summer of 2019, Miriam and I shared enthusiasm for the possibilities for the exhibit. We agreed that students would take the lead on choosing objects and themes so that they could get the most out of their first curatorial experience. We wanted to create a space where students could immerse themselves in archival research, so Miriam generously scheduled seven times during the semester for the five undergraduate students to come to the newly renovated Special Collections Center to engage with the materials. 

I started the class with my standard model for an introduction to archival literacy: showing students the finding aids and catalogs, sharing tips for searching, modeling care and handling of a variety of materials, and teaching how to analyze and draw connections across primary source documents. As the semester went on, we chose the exhibit theme of “Fighting Fascism.” The students used the finding aids and conversations with each other to choose sub-themes and objects. Consultations with Pamela Tinnen, Lead Curator for the Kimmel Windows, informed the layout of the cases and the number of objects we needed. As the semester drew to a close, Miriam, Pamela, and I were confident in the strength of the exhibit and that the students had exceeded expectations for the course’s learning objectives.

We brought in additional stakeholders in early 2020 to support exhibit development. We created programming to pair with an exhibit opening in late March 2020. My colleagues in the Barbara Goldsmith Preservation & Conservation Department and the Digital Library Technology Services Department prepared and digitized 12 posters, and one of our student workers, Lia Warner, undertook the herculean effort to scan at high-resolution the postcards, letters, and photographs the student curators had chosen. The students from the class had turned in their final text for the exhibit, and Pamela was putting the finishing touches on mockups of the exhibit before printing the final boards. Things were moving towards completion. 

And then the pandemic hit.

Effects of COVID-19

As we all headed home for an unknown period of time, we knew the exhibit would need to be delayed. We briefly floated the idea of hosting a virtual event and a digital exhibition, but it became increasingly clear that we would be working remotely for the long haul and that everyone’s job duties would change dramatically. Departmental priorities shifted to focus on essential tasks, and unfortunately, the exhibition needed to be let go for the moment. I felt discouraged that we had put in so much work to get so close to the finish line, but also recognized how overwhelmed I was at the prospect of trying to help researchers and teach classes while not having access to the collection material. 

Facing these challenges, I knew I had to get creative and make do with what I already had. What I had was a lot of digitized material and an upcoming class on the Spanish Civil War. Why not repurpose the former for the latter? Although the audience shifted from the original intention, using the exhibit items would ensure that our previous work wasn’t in vain. My first virtual class was a success, and the very existence of these resources led to engaging discussions about digitized objects in a way that never would have transpired in a so-called normal class session. Without the curatorial decisions of students for this exhibit and the work of my colleagues to support that effort, I would not have been able to be as prepared as I was to move to virtual teaching for future semesters. 

In addition to being used in instruction sessions, DLTS added digital scans of the posters to the finding aid for the Spanish Civil War Poster Collection (ALBA.GRAPHICS.001) for the first time. This work had been scheduled before the COVID-19 shutdowns, but it nevertheless contributed to our access effort for researchers since at least part of the collection was made available.

Where my original goal was to impress on the students the importance of good curatorial work and the value of archival research, the student curators have made an impression on other researchers’ experience of our materials. The students chose the posters specifically to fit in the theme of “Fighting Fascism,” a theme that they saw as relevant to the zeitgeist of 2019-2020, and their goal was to help their readers cultivate a sense of historical empathy and draw connections to the present. As time has passed since the initial selection of materials, I am constantly reaffirmed that the students made solid choices. Despite the exhibit not transpiring in the way and on the timeline we initially thought it would, the work done to support the project has still had an impact on education and access to materials, which was at the heart of both the stated class goals and my personal goals. I am hopeful that one day the rest of the students’ work will be showcased as an exhibit, but for now, I remain grateful that their work still supported a transition to the virtual setting and allowed other students and researchers to experience the Abraham Lincoln Brigades Archives in a new way.

Images

Poster: Luchan contra el fascismo combatiendo la ignorancia (Fight against fascism by fighting ignorance), undated; Spanish Civil War Poster Collection; ALBA GRAPHICS 001; ALBA-ES 31; New York University Special Collections, scan by DLTS

Propaganda Posters on a wall in Spain, ca 1937-1938; Albert Lyonel Harris Photograph Collection; ALBA.PHOTOS.049; Box 1; Folder 27; NYU Special Collections, scan by Lia Warner

Postcard: Defensa la republica escriu als teus amics de tot el mon (Defend the Republic, write to your friends around the world), undated; Spanish Civil War Postcard Collection; ALBA.242; Box 1; Binder 3; NYU Special Collections, scan by Lia Warner