MAC Chicago 2010: Cultural Crossroads

This year’s MAC annual meeting will have its first-ever blog covering the various sessions and other happenings at the event. “MAC Deep Dish” will provide short summaries of individual sessions, so those who are unable to attend the meeting (or that session) can learn more about the topics that were covered. The blog’s writers (“the Chicago Six”) also hope to provide other highlights such as short reports on the opening reception, the members’ meeting, and the student poster session.

Take a look at MAC Deep Dish.

Want a break from the conference? You can stroll down Michigan Avenue past the historic Tribune Tower and over the Chicago River to Millennium Park. This dynamic downtown park features the Jay Pritzker Pavilion designed by Frank Gehry; the interactive Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa; and Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate sculpture. Step into the Lurie Garden and you won’t know you are still downtown.

From the Park you can take the new pedestrian bridge across Monroe Street to the recently opened Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago. Both were designed by Renzo Piano.Meeting29Oct2008

Chicago has one of the most creative theater communities in the country. Just a short bus/cab ride from the hotel you can see, among other plays,

The Taming of the Shrew
Chicago Shakespeare Theater

Billy Elliot: The Musical
Broadway in Chicago
Ford Center for the Performing Arts / Oriental Theatre

Hephaestus: A Greek Mythology Circus Tale
Lookingglass Theatre / Goodman Theatre

Or, you can check out neighborhood theaters, which offer a wide-range of wonderful productions.

What’s on stage during the MAC meeting:

Timeout Chicago: Theater

Chicago Tribune: Theater Loop

Interested in film? The 2010 Latino Film Festival runs from April 16 – 29 and features over 120 films from Latin America, Portugal, Spain and the United States. At many screenings, the filmmakers will be present to discuss their work.

Are you interested in unique collections that show the history of some of the Midwest’s prominent immigrant and ethnic groups? Do you work with collections in languages that you or your institution’s researchers are unfamiliar with? Do you enjoy seeing pictures of people in lederhosen? If you answered yes to any of these questions, be sure to attend the session “A Conundrum at the Crossroads: Challenges of Ethnic and Immigrant Collections” on Saturday April 24th at 10:30 am. In this session, Suzanne Maggard of the University of Cincinnati, Kären Mason of the University of Iowa, and Christina Johansson of Augustana College will discuss three unique immigrant and ethnic collections and the obstacles that they have overcome in managing these collections.

First, this session will explore the German-Americana collection at the University of Cincinnati. In a city which hosts North America’s largest Oktoberfest, German-American culture is still evident. Yet German speakers are not nearly as common as they once were. Suzanne Maggard will discuss her experiences with the German-Americana collection with no prior knowledge of the German language. Further information on the collection is available at: http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb/ger_americana/index.html

Next, Kären Mason of the Iowa Women’s Archives at the University of Iowa will discuss the Mujeres Latina Project. Although you might not immediately associate Latin Americans with Iowa, the history of Latinas in Iowa extends back to the 1880s. Mason will describe the challenges of funding and managing transcription of oral histories conducted in Spanish. More information about the collection and this project is available at: http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/iwa/mujeres.html

This session will conclude with a discussion of a Swedish immigrant collection. Augustana College, founded by Swedish immigrants in 1860, is the home of the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center. In her discussion of this collection, Christina Johansson will focus on solutions to make non-English materials accessible to English-only speakers. The Swenson Center’s collection contains resources for the study of Swedish immigration to North America, the communities the immigrants established, and the role the immigrants and their descendants have played in American life. Explore this collection at: http://www.augustana.edu/x13856.xml

A selection (by no means complete) of tours, museums, and other attractions that document Chicago’s history as a Cultural Crossroads. 

Self-Guided Tours

Chicago’s African American History:   http://www.ci.chi.il.us/Landmarks/Tours/AfricanAmerican.html

Bronzeville:  http://www.ci.chi.il.us/Landmarks/B/BlackMet.html

The Labor Trail: http://www.labortrail.org/

 Organizations, Libraries, and Museums

Map and directions for museums and organizations listed below: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=118048391442727766527.000438374924c30df009c&z=10&om=1

Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture Library and Archives http://www.lithaz.org/museums/balzekas/

Bronzeville Historical Society http://www.bronzevillehistoricalsociety.com/

Chicago Japanese American Historical Society  http://www.cjahs.org/

Chinatown Chamber of Commerce http://www.chicagochinatown.org/

Chinese American Museum  http://www.chicagochinatown.org/cccorg/place.jsp

Columbia College Center for Black Music Research http://www.colum.edu/cbmr/

Czechoslovak Heritage Museum Library and Archives http://www.csafraternallife.org/Default.asp?loc=chm

DuSable Museum of African American History http://www.dusablemuseum.org

Frances Willard House http://www.franceswillardhouse.org

Gerber/Hart Library (LGBT) http://www.gerberhart.org/

HistoryMakers http://www.thehistorymakers.com

Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art  http://www.art.org/index.html

Leather Archives and Museum http://www.leatherarchives.org/home.htm

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Religious Archives Network  http://www.lgbtran.org/

Lithuanian Research and Studies Center, Inc.  http://lithuanianresearch.org/eng/ltsceng/ltscenghome.htm

Mitchell Museum of the American Indian http://www.mitchellmuseum.org

National Hellenic Museum http://www.nationalhellenicmuseum.org/

National Museum of Mexican Art http://www.nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org

North Park University. Archives and Special Collections http://www.northpark.edu/library/archives/

(includes Swedish-American Archives) See also http://www.samac.org/

Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum www.aphiliprandolphmuseum.org

Polish Museum of America http://www.polishmuseumofamerica.org/

Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History & Literature: http://www.chipublib.org/branch/details/library/woodson-regional/p/FeatHarsh/

Women and Leadership Archives, Loyola University Chicago http://www.luc.edu/gannon/archives/

Plan on visiting the Vendor Fair while you are at the 2010 Midwest Archives Conference Annual Meeting: Thursday, April 22, 3:00 – 5:00 PM and Friday April 23, 8:30-5 PM

DAYTON GIVE-AWAYS

The Dayton Fall 2010 Symposium Committee will be having drawings (at the MEMBERS’ MEETING ON FRIDAY) for great Dayton-related items—see list below. 

You’ll need to visit the vendors to pick up a ticket. The more vendors you visit, the more tickets you’ll get to enter the drawings! 

AND THAT’S NOT ALL!

ArcaSearch will be giving away a brand new Apple IPad! (a $500.00 value). Be sure to visit the ArcaSearch booth to qualify, the drawing will take place late Friday afternoon at the close of the vender exhibits.

 Visit all our vendors – they have products and services to make your job easier!

Academy of Certified Archivists (ACA)

Ancestry.com

ArcaSearch, A Division of ColorMax

Bradford Systems

Campbell Center for Historic Preservation Studies

Chicago ARMA Chapter

Chicago Records Management

Cuadra Associates, Inc.

Front Porch Digital, Inc.

Gaylord Brothers

Hollinger-Metal Edge, Inc.

HOV Services

Northern Micrographics

Preservation Technologies

SAA Student Chapter, University of Wisconsin

Society of American Archivists (SAA)

The Crowley Company

The HistoryMakers

University of Illinois GSLIS

University Products, Inc.

This just in!  Marc Fischer of Public Collectors is joining Alternative Press Center‘s Graham Stephenson & Chicago Underground Library‘s Margaret Heller for their tour/talk at the APC on April 22.  Providing an online home for a variety of esoteric inventories and digital collections, Public Collectors is founded upon the concern that many types of cultural artifacts don’t make it into traditional libraries and archives.  A few examples of what you’ll find on the Public Collectors site include a collection of Do Not Disturb signs, the Vanilla Ice Museum, and songs about food.

The Alternative Press Center/Chicago Underground Library/Public Collectors tour will be held at the Alternative Press Center on Thursday, April 22 from 10 am to noon.  The tour is already full, so be sure to visit these repositories either virtually or in person some other time if you’re not registered!