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By: Annie Tummino, Head of Special Collections & Archives, and Olivia Zisman, Project Archivist<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Main Content” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_padding=”||||true|true” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Queens College Special Collections and Archives (SCA) is thrilled to announce that the Barbara Rosenthal Papers<\/a> are now open for research. Rosenthal, who transferred her papers to Queens College in phases between 2021-2025<\/a>, is an avant-garde interdisciplinary artist, writer, and performer. She explores existential themes through her multimedia artworks, which often take the form of photography, video, text, and performance. Rosenthal attended graduate school at Queens College in the 1970s, receiving her MFA in painting in 1975.<\/p>\n The collection documents Rosenthal\u2019s personal and professional life, spanning from the early 1940s through 2025. It consists of materials related to her career as an artist, and professional activities related to her studio practice and business endeavors, as well as her career as an educator (largely in higher education in New York). It also contains Rosenthal\u2019s journals, family heirlooms, student papers, correspondence, and ephemera.<\/p>\n Thanks to Rosenthal\u2019s multi-hyphenate career encompassing many forms of art and literary production, and her penchant for accumulating and saving object of special meaning, it is one of the most in-depth and eclectic collections stewarded by SCA. Comprised of 137 linear feet of boxed material, plus additional textiles and oversized items, the collection provides insight into the art making process from inspiration through exhibition, review, and revision, and documents the relationship between art and artist. It is SCA\u2019s premier collection of papers from an alumni visual artist.<\/p>\n The collection is rich in possibility for scholarship, teaching, and creativity. Just to name a few examples, one can peruse 90 numbered volumes of Rosenthal\u2019s journals starting at the age of 11; explore multiple drafts and editions of her artists\u2019 books; review exhibition posters and business records; or examine \u201csacred objects\u201d derived from Rosenthal\u2019s life. Depending on the box, one might find a sabretooth tiger tusk, a silk baby pillowcase, or a handmade beaded G-string, a bundle of letters, or doodles on scrap paper. The archive is a delight for the mind and the senses, unspooling the layers of the artist\u2019s life and work.<\/p>\n\n\t\t