Thousands of documents related to more than fifty years of exhibitions at the Elvehjem Art Center, Elvehjem Museum of art, and now the Chazen Museum of Art have been digitized and are now accessible online through the UW–Madison Libraries. A three-year Mellon Foundation grant supporting the “Coordinating Cultural Heritage Collections at UW–Madison” project allowed the Chazen to be the pilot organization for the development of tools for collecting, preserving and sharing digital assets. In the future, the systems developed via the project will be available to other collections across campus.
The Chazen (Elvehjem) Museum Archival Documents collection contains documentation of the museum’s exhibitions starting with the inaugural show in 1970. Included are administrative documents like gallery layouts, correspondence, and checklists; promotional materials; ephemera related to events and education; and documentation of lectures, gallery talks, docent materials, and the like. Photographic documentation of the installation and receptions or other gatherings may also be included. Earlier this year, the Chazen Museum of Art Permanent Collection was published at UWDC. It includes records of objects in the museum’s collection with access to high resolution images where available.