The Gay and Lesbian Interests Round Table (GLIRT) held its business meeting on April 6th at the San Antonio Conference. The meeting marked the fifth anniversary of GLIRT, which has become a vital part of ARLIS/NA. Conference programming was an essential part of the early morning discussion. Twenty-one people attended the meeting.
The 1997 session, co-sponsored with the Diversity Committee, was titled "Tiptoeing into the Closet: Que(er)ying, Building, and Accessing Our Collections." A session for the 1998 conference in Philadelphia on Gay and Lesbian archives with a potential list of speakers was proposed. The session, organized by Ray Anne Lockard (University of Pittsburgh), was approved for submission to the 1998 Conference Program Chair. Philadelphia art galleries hold group openings on the first Friday of the month, a day that will fortuitously fall at the beginning of the conference. A GLIRT-sponsored reception at a gallery for ARLIS members was discussed and will be explored in greater detail.
Assuring future leadership of GLIRT was an important consideration at the meeting. A replacement was needed for incoming moderator. Mary Galvin (Detroit Institute of Arts) graciously volunteered to serve as 1997 moderator and was elected by acclamation. Susan Wyngaard (Ohio State University) agreed to serve the Society by being GLIRT co-moderator/moderator-elect for 1998.
GLIRT has raised its profile within and beyond the Society by the creation of the GLIRT Web Site. The site, linked to the ARLIS/NA web site, was designed and will be maintained by Ray Anne Lockard and Jim Viskochil of the University of Pittsburgh. It contains a history of the Round Table, reports, and links to related sites. It was also noted at the meeting that Lockard's "Lesbians, Bisexuals and Gay Men in the Workplace: A Selective Bibliography", found as part of the ARLIS/NA Publications of the Web, received more 'hits' than any other section of the ARLIS site. GLIRT will also be included in the new edition of R. Ellen Greenblatt's Gay and Lesbian Library Service.
Gregory P. J. Most
National Gallery of Art
g-most@nga.gov