Conversation with Gary Van Zante, the Curator at the Architecture and Design Collections at the MIT Museum
I really thank Gary Van Zante for accepting my appointment request, participation in my systematic research project on diversity and inclusion in architecture archives and collections at schools of architecture in the U.S., sharing his valuable time to talk with.
According
to the e-mail by Myles Crowley, reference associate at the MIT Institute
Archives and Special Collections (IASC) on February 6th 2019, they
do not have a designated archivist for architectural collection, and “most” of
the architecture sources in the IASC are listed on the following web page: https://libraries.mit.
Within
this context, the profile and role of Gary Van Zante become highly important to
shed light on documentation at the MIT-Architecture and its current policy. According to his
short biography on Graham Foundation official web page (2018), "he is curator of architecture and design and former director of exhibitions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum, where he has organized and curated exhibitions ranging from sixteenth century architectural graphics to contemporary design practice and photography. He has organized more than 60 exhibitions at MIT since 2002, and was guest curator at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia; the Multimedia Art Museum of Moscow; and the Municipal Art Society of New York; among other institutions. Prior to MIT he was head of the Southeastern Architectural Archive at Tulane University and taught in the School of Architecture's preservation program. He has also been a curator at the University of Chicago, and worked as writer and archivist in architectural practice in Chicago, for SOM and HBRA..."; http://grahamfoundation.org/grantees/5773-public-and-private-east-germany-in-photographs-by-ulrich-wust, last accessed on 4.4.2019.