INVENTIONS Library & Archives

This was a job I had for one year in Halifax, NS at the Eyelevel Gallery as part of the galleries initiative and collaboration with the NS Job Creation Partnership program. At the time the gallery was located on Gottingen St. but now operates within another location, proving success again to it's nomadic & migratory behaviour. Below is the release statement for the opening of the archives and a paired exhibition featuring pieces from galleries history:

Eyelevel Gallery (ELG) is pleased to launch The Inventions Library & Archives, coordinated and constructed by Corey J. Isenor. Now in its 38th year of operation, ELG remains to be one of the oldest and most weathered artist-run centres in Canada’s history. Throughout multiple moves to over 9 different locations during its lifespan, endless quantities of printed matter, posters, and exhibition paraphernalia have been acquired. The Invention’s Library & Archives were created to house these items in a searchable database that could allow ELG members, and the public, access to the history of such an integral creative hub.

With today’s cultural sectors constantly being threatened or cut, it’s more important now then ever that organizations such as ELG begin to look back and investigate their history. Not merely for the retrospective gratification of a job well done, but more to develop an understanding of how people, location, audience, and funding operate and mutate in order to keep an important institution alive.

Accompanying the launch of The Inventions Library & Archives will be an exhibition entitled Look Back, to Where You Once Belonged, highlighting various alternative aspects of the galleries history while also providing an open-faced look back at events and exhibitions significant to ELG’s lifetime. This includes, among other works, recent audio interviews with founding ELG board members Julia Schmit Healy, John Greer, Karl MacKeeman and Roger Savage, the presentation of a poster re-print project using collected imagery & archive materials, and an exhibit of various guestbook’s and visitor signatures kept over the ages, including that possibly of Lou Reed.