To sell or not to sell Langton’s Archive?

Is this a sacrificial act? Or are you just erasing our past to rewrite your own?

Tercerunquinto selling our heart and soul, the sprit, the genie that fly’s out of the bottle when you rub it?

I know what’s in those undeserving plain-wrap boxes containing the archive. I personally participated in creating it.

When I took over as Operations Manager in ’93, I had the decision to donate or to commit to continuing Langton’s Archive. I made the commitment and personally sans-payroll, indexed the archive, making it available to our exhibiting artist and extended community.

Yes, late nights with no money in sight, committed volunteers and friends alike worked to document our history for our legacy.

I experienced phone calls from NLA’s past exhibiting artist’s and students who would request items from NLA’s Archive to further their careers and study. Who wouldn’t have wanted an illustrated program from our ‘Rat Fink’ show? Did you know you could have bought one for three bucks?

I challenge the Directors to create options and outline permissible conditions of the sale. I suggest finding an appropriate offer that keeps archival material accessible to artist of past exhibitions and to students and the art community at large.

I challenge the Directors to publicly publish the Archives’ Index of materials. New Langtons’ Archive possibly contains Artist’s works that were donated to the institution and were not to be considered as apart of the Archive.

Tercerunquinto also made this assessment of Langton: ‘We saw that the “real” site of Langton is not it’s building but its archive. The building doesn’t matter here, the institution is represented in a different way, not by its building but by its history.’

I sat in the gallery for years, NLA enjoyed much return foot traffic due the length of our south of market location.

This building is truly unique and built for art. Did you know there is a hidden hallway behind the theater where we hid things downstairs during events to keep things organized for the theater. New Langton Arts gallery and theater split-level space is uniquely and distinctly its’ own.

I’d ask the Board to poll our past Performance Artists and have them speak to the intimate atmosphere of NLA’s theater and the magic it creates. Where else could you screen Andy Warhol’s ‘Empire’ for eleven hours?

I challenge Tercerunquintos’ entire assessment of New Langton Art’s. I see it as a shortsighted, skewed assessment, entangled in wholly opportunistic art making.

I propose that if NLA sells it’s Archive, please sell it’s name and location too.

Honestly, the Archive in all of it’s beautiful imperfectness is at least ours… even if for just a little while longer.