Why Have There Been No Great Art Libraries:

Abstract

During the past year, there has been a global reckoning with systemic racism, misogyny, transphobia, and xenophobia. As institutions look inward at the ways they can dismantle ongoing systems of oppression, academia must also look at how it codifies these ideologies through Eurocentric canons. Art history is one such field. However, as a highly interdisciplinary subject, it presents a unique foundation on which to restructure these frameworks. This article dissects the role that cataloging plays in reinforcing the canon within art libraries and how a radical cataloging approach can diversify research and representation within art history as a field. [This article is a revision of a paper presented at the “New Voices in the Profession” session during the 49th annual ARLIS/NA conference held virtually May 11–13, 2021.]