This message is being cross-posted, please forgive the duplications.
 
The Corcoran Gallery of Art Archives is *considering* indexing three series
of exhibitions held at the Corcoran.
 
An index to the Gallery's Biennial exhibition series was published by Sound
View Press several years ago that has proved to be extremely useful to us,
and, hopefully, to researchers and libraries.
 
We would like to produce an index to annual exhibitions held at
the Corcoran by the Society of Washington Artists and the Washington Water
Color Club, and also the Area Show series organized by the gallery.  There
are approximately 110 exhibition catalogues involved, and I guestimate
that the index would include over 15,000 objects.  In a computerized
format (CD) the index would be searchable by artist's name, title of
object, and title or dates of exhibition.  In book form, I imagine a
format similar to other exhibition indexes, i.e. arranged by artist name.
 
Obviously, we are at the very beginning of the planning but I would
welcome any suggestions/warnings/comments about this kind of project,
especially any sense of how useful such an index might be to researchers,
librarians, and archivists and what format (CD, book, etc.) might be
preferred.
 
I appreciate your help.
 
 
Marisa Keller
The Corcoran Gallery of Art
[log in to unmask]