Collection Development Policy: Visual Art
  • Subject Librarian(s):
    Norine Duncan
    Rosemary Cullen (Special Collections)

  • Departmental Library Representative (DLR):
    Roger Mayer

  • Description of the Academic Program | Home Page
    The Department of Visual Art offers an undergraduate concentration with an Honors program consisting of a two-semester project. A course on contemporary art is required, in addition to at least two courses listed by the Department of the History of Art & Architecture. Courses in the practice of art include painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, art of the book, photography, and digital imaging. The curriculum is designed to be challenging and rigorous for concentrators and to supply satisfying electives for students majoring in other subjects. It provides a visual education in both traditional and new media, grounded in a historical and theoretical base. Visual Art collaborates with Modern Culture & Media to offer an interdepartmental major in Art-Semiotics, which studies the cultural role of artistic production. Courses in filmmaking and video production are cross-listed. An Honors program in this joint concentration usually consists of an independent study. Both concentrations may include courses taken at the Rhode Island School of Design. Each concentrator presents an exhibition of his/her work, usually during the eighth semester.



  • Overview of the Collection
    Until 1988, Visual Art and History of Art & Architecture were united as the Art Department. Current acquisitions for History of Art & Architecture, as well as the retrospective collection, continue to serve as a resource for Visual Art faculty and student s. Materials collected specifically for Visual Art focus upon contemporary art (approximately the last 50 years). Effort has recently intensified to build the collection in support of new courses in Photography. Electronic resources most relevant to Visual Art are the Grove Dictionary of Art Online, ARTbibliographies Modern, Art Abstracts, and Humanities Index. The Grove title is a full-text encyclopedia, whereas the other databases index and abstract periodical literature. Art-Semiotics majors may also want to consult the Film Index International, accessible only from the Library Clusters. Eighteen journal subscriptions support Visual Art, which also benefits from the Library's holdings of approximately 40 journals of Photography (subscriptions assigned to History of Art & Architecture). Electronic journals of special interest to Visual Art include Representations, Postmodern Culture, and Modernism/Modernity. Visual Art faculty and students with an interest in digital arts and color theory rely upon Computer Science, Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences, Physics, and Mathematics for acquisition of relevant technical and theoretical materials.



  • General Collecting Guidelines
    Collection development specifically for Visual Art focuses on contemporary art and works that are of particular interest to practicing artists. History of art prior to the 20th century is acquired by History of Art & Architecture. Titles treating the hist ory and theory of 20th century art movements are acquired for both Visual Art and History of Art & Architecture. Coverage of art media to support the undergraduate program in Visual Art includes painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, papermaking, book arts, photography, and digital media.

    Brown participates in a Boston Library Consortium agreement on cooperative resource sharing in Art. The goal of this ongoing project is to coordinate acquisition of exhibition catalogs that feature the work of women artists, according to a plan that ensur es coverage of all geographic areas and time periods of interest to member institutions. Brown commits 0 annually to the purchase of catalogs of exhibitions by contemporary women artists of Spain, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Nine other institu tions allocate between 0 and ,000 each annually to cover other geographic areas and time periods. Visual Art also benefits from an approval plan with Worldwide Books (funded for History of Art & Architecture), which supplies the major current English -language exhibition catalogs, many of which cover modern and contemporary art.

    Slides of contemporary art are acquired for the Art Slide Library from vendors, museums, galleries, and copywork (the latter on request by faculty members). A transition to digital images is anticipated in the near future. Videos and CD-ROMs are acquired only as specifically requested by faculty. Materials to support filmmaking and video production are acquired by Modern Culture & Media. Technical works (class QA) for the support of the study of digital arts and multimedia are acquired by Computer Science.

  • Detailed Subject Breakdown

  • Specific Collecting Guidelines
    • Language: English; occasionally Western European languages.
    • Chronological Span: 20th-21st centuries, with emphasis on art after 1945.
    • Geographical Range: emphasis on U.S. and Western Europe; basic interest in Japan.
    • Types of Material Included: Books, journals, exhibition catalogs, slides, digital images, videos, CD-ROMs, online electronic resources. Excluded: Textbooks and "how-to" books; architecture; interior decoration; art education; art conservation; commercial art; illustration.


  • Areas of Distinction
    Fine Arts of the 20th century (overlap of interest with History of Art & Architecture)

  • Special Collections
    The holdings of Special Collections in the John Hay Library include artists' books, fine printing, illustrated books, bindings, hand-made paper, glass-plate negatives, daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, other types of photographs singly and in albums, and works of art. For students of Visual Art, these resources furnish examples of materials and techniques of artistic production, and serve as sources of ideas and inspiration. Support for continuing acquisitions for Special Collections comes from a combination of endowed funds and Library appropriation. Holdings are also augmented through gifts.

    In addition to the general Rare Book Collections, the collections of greatest interest to Visual Art are the Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays, the Broadsides Collection, the Dard Hunter Collection on Papermaking, and the Koopman Collection of literature and the book arts. The archives of several fine press publishers have been acquired in recent years: Greenhouse Press, Burning Deck Press, and Third & Elm Press. The Sheet Music Collection features extensive illustrations, including lithographs, airbrush art, distinctive lettering, collage techniques, cartoons, and photography. The Michael J. Ciaraldi Collection consists of nearly 60,000 comic books and graphic novels. The Lucy Truman Aldrich Collection of Rare Illustrated Children's Books and the Pillar Collection of Children's Literature hold a total of 3,500 titles, including both classics of children's book illustration and a notable collection of recent illustrated children's books. A recent donation of works by Stow Wengeroth (1906-1978) consists of 367 lithographs and more than 40 of his original dry-brush drawings.


  • Related Collections
    The Art Slide Library lends slides, photographs, and reproductions for classroom use. New slides are made weekly in response to faculty and student requests. Part of the Art Slide Library's collection of slides and photographs is searchable online in Anita. The Library's collection of videos, all of which are cataloged in Josiah, is stored at Media Services in th e Sciences Library. Modern Culture & Media also has a departmental collection of films and videos; for information, contact Richard_Manning@brown.edu. The Orwig Music Library collects recordings of sound effects. CD-ROMs of multimedia works are also located at Orwig.

    Brown faculty members may borrow books from RISD Library on their CRIARL cards (which may be obtained from the Brown University Library circulation office). Students who obtain a letter of referral from Brown's circulation office will also be permitted to borrow materials from RISD Library. RISD Library's holdings can be searched in its online catalog. RISD acquires exhibition catalogs from galleries and smaller museums that Brown does not attempt to cover. RISD's collection is also stronger than Brown's in media other than the fine arts, such as decorative and applied arts. The art collections of the Providence Public Library include the Rhode Island Artists and Photographers Files, consisting of clippings, promotional pieces, exhibit announcements and reviews, bibliographic references to Rhode Island artists and photographers from Gilbert Stuart to the present. PPL's central location downtown also has a Picture File of 175,000 loose pictures on a wide variety of topics with special strengths in portraits, countries and costume, transportation, and artists and their work.

  • Selected List of Key Internet Resources