GENERAL PURPOSE

The Art Department library collection supports the course work of the studio art faculty and students. The core of the monograph holdings include technical manuals, art theory, exhibition catalogs, heavily illustrated books on wildlife subjects, and biographies of artists. In recent years we have expanded the non-print materials to include works by video and performance artists. A very limited number of books and non print materials have been purchased to support the art/artisan interests of the general Kenyon community.

GENERAL SUBJECT BOUNDARIES

Subjects in the studio art section of the library collection include sculpture, painting, bookmaking, photography, printmaking, installation art, digital imaging, performance art, and drawing.

TYPES OF MATERIALS COLLECTED

The Art Department actively collects monographs, artists exhibition catalogs and serials. Artists must be able to speak and write about their own work, and to relate to the work of other artists' to their own.  To this end we purchase many exhibition catalogs on a wide variety of contemporary artists and techniques. 

FORMAT OF MATERIALS COLLECTED

In addition to print materials the Department requests projected media (both videotapes and DVD productions) of performance and video artists as well as documentaries on art movements and important individuals.

LANGUAGES

Historically the collection has included primarily English language materials, with a small number of reference works and exhibition catalogs in European languages. Our print serials collection currently emphasizes English language materials with a limited number of European language titles in the collection. We hope to add international titles through electronic sources as those materials become available online.

GEOGRAPHICAL AREAS

The art collection focuses primarily upon materials from North America and Europe. As new subject areas are introduced or special topics courses are offered print and non-print will be collected to provide for those studies.

CHRONOLOGICAL GUIDELINES

Although the emphasis of the studio art collection is on contemporary art, all periods of pre-history and history are included in the collection.

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND MANUSCRIPTS

The Special Collections holdings include many examples of artists books, a typography collection and out-of-print art books. The course on bookmaking includes a visit to the Special Collections Room to view the artists books. In addition, the Special Collections holdings include examples of early tintypes and daguerreotypes.

OTHER RESOURCES AVAILABLE

Refer to our web page for specific online databases used by students and faculty in this department. Consort and Ohiolink are also valuable resources used by the department.

CREATION DATE AND REVISION HISTORY

June 2010

LC CLASS

N-NX, TR