Please help me find a good home for this mail art project from 1974.

July 7, 2021 2:12 PM

Please help me find a good home for this mail art project from 1974.

My late husband created this mail project, starting in 1974, through 1978.

It consists of 225 postcards, as well as two spiral bound notebooks documenting the addresses and dates sent/received.

Some of the people involved:

Ray Johnson (duh), Lucy Lippard (duh), Isaac Asimov, Lynette Fromme, Patti Smith, Jon Gibson, John Cage, Sol Lewitt, well, you get the idea - a nice mix of famous and non-famous people - here's a link:

https://www.gchaymes.com/skymail.php

I'm not looking to sell it - I'd like to donate to a mail art archive.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

posted by chocolatepeanutbuttercup to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

How about The Poetry Collection's Mail Art Archive at the University of Buffalo?
posted by essexjan at 2:33 PM on July 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

This is a delight to look through. Thank you so much for sharing and helping preserve this treasure-trove.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 3:31 PM on July 7, 2021 [4 favorites]

This is awesome. Loved Patti Smith's mother. Not sure about the Moondogg cat. I have clicked on about 20 of these at random and not one person answered straight up. Maybe that is me who thinks the sky looks blue. Mostly.
posted by AugustWest at 3:42 PM on July 7, 2021

The Smithsonian Archives of American Art recently put together a mail art exhibition. Perhaps they'd be interested?
posted by xo at 3:46 PM on July 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

This is so charming! Thank you for sharing it--I really enjoyed looking through it. I hope you are able to find a home for it!
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 4:27 PM on July 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

I hope contacting the Smithsonian works out. Other ideas: Universities, if your late husband or you are connected to one? And some of Johnson's work is archived at UC Santa Cruz and the University of Delaware. Last year, Printed Matter, Inc. (the NYC non-profit bookstore/artist organization/arts space Lippard co-founded in 1976) began this mail art exhibition; maybe the org is a resource for finding a home for the collection. Thanks for preserving it.
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:00 PM on July 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

The International Union of Mail Artists (IUOMA) has artists around the world and might be a good resource for contacts to museums and art galleries interested in presenting and preserving this work.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 5:43 PM on July 7, 2021

I can't give you any advice as to where it should go, but it should go somewhere where it's preserved.
My lord, that is really wonderful!

Check out the card from Chick Corea.
posted by james33 at 5:10 AM on July 8, 2021

I really have nothing to add to the suggestions above (all excellent), but I just wanted to say that
a) I love this AskMefi question, these are the gems that make me love Metafilter
b) I am sad about your husband but thankful that you share this with us
c) I wish that all weather forecasts were as poetic as Gary Snyder's description. They should hire poets to present the weather.

I hope the project finds a nice home.
posted by fregoli at 10:42 AM on July 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

Maybe a museum in upstate New York since that is where your husband was most active. Interesting one could be Bard College’s art museum, they have a student curating program so the project could be of interest to young scholars.
posted by Jason and Laszlo at 3:52 PM on July 8, 2021