Engaging faculty, students, and donors with an Egyptian art archives project at the American University in Cairo

With so much attention directed to its ancient pharaonic art and medieval Islamic art, Egypt’s modern-era visual artists do not always receive the attention they deserve. This presentation will showcase how The American University in Cairo’s Rare Books and Special Collections Library has attempted to bring more visibility to the contributions of Egyptian artists, and incorporated faculty and student engagement with such documentation, through a university-funded project titled “Building an Archive and Digital Repository of 20th Century Egyptian Art.” The presentation will demonstrate how archivists and special collections librarians can collaborate with teaching faculty in building primary source documentation (digital and physical), by drawing on faculty disciplinary expertise and professional relationships. Also to be highlighted is the way that the project has been used as an experiential learning opportunity, with AUC Arts Department faculty integrating into their courses internships with the project, through which students participate in the documentation process by organizing and describing physical and digital archives, and making other digital sources available for research such as by transcribing artist oral histories. The way that the Library has used this project to develop new collecting techniques will also be covered, with donor artists lending (and later receiving back) originals of photographs, exhibition catalogs, and other archival materials for digitizing and deposit into AUC’s digital library as an openly accessible resource. Through this presentation attendees will learn of techniques they can pursue at their own institutions to build primary documentation collections and involve faculty and students in the process.