Block Club magazine was honored to have made a special visit to the Burchfield Penney Art Center last week, delivering a complete collection of the publication’s 40 issues, plus two supplements, to the gallery’s permanent archive. A group of us drove down to deliver the set and archivist Heather Gring gave us a tour of their archive—and what an archive!
“The Archives of the Burchfield Penney Art Center hold documentation of artists and arts organizations with a connection to Western New York,” said Gring. “Most significantly, we hold the archives of Charles E. Burchfield, consisting of 25,000 sketches, 10,000 pages of journals, thousands of pages of correspondence, images and his painting indexes. We not only collect the primary source materials of artists and arts organizations, but also materials to support the context of an era.”
To know that our magazine will be in the company of such esteemed artifacts, alongside incredible artwork, drafts, journals, personal collectables, letters and other ephemera, is incredibly rewarding. It serves our magazine’s goal of making work that stands the test of time, and speaks to this unique time in Buffalo’s history.
“Block Club magazine provides a snapshot of Buffalo during a very significant period of time, and features extensive articles by and about WNY artists. It will be a great resource for future researchers to understand the context of Buffalo from 2007-2015,” said Gring. “We’re excited to have this resource available, and to have the opportunity to preserve this awesome Buffalo publication.”
Thank you for this opportunity, Burchfield Penney friends! We’re honored, and can’t wait to come visit to see the rest of your extraordinary archive and art collection!
Pick up a copy of Issue 40: Home on complimentary newsstands or read it online.