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The Bay Area Contemporary Art Archive (BACAA) Has been donated to SFMoma’s Library & Archives. It is being integrated into the collection of 50,000 artist and arts organization files – including exhibition announcements, CVs, bibliographies, press releases, news clippings, and other ephemera. Thanks to David Senior & staff for facilitating!

The Bay Area Contemporary Art Archive (BACAA) is a public archive: a receptacle, preservation society and venue for the ephemera of Bay Area contemporary artists, venues and related projects. BACAA is currently collecting and digitizing ephemera, and creating an online venue to preserve and share the work of local artists. BACAA will soon be hosting collection points to receive and process ephemera. BACAA will also preserve the physical archive and eventually seek a permanent home in an established archive. In-person collecting events will commence once it is safe to do so. Meanwhile, follow us on instagram @bayareacontemporaryartarchive

BACAA continues the work from Mapping the Archive, and is inspired by the work of archives like Documenting Ferguson, QZAP, Bildwechsel, Interference Archive, LACA, and more.

Support for BACAA is provided by Southern Exposure’s Alternative Exposure Grant Program- Thank you!. Thanks, too, to Sean Dickerson, Archivist at the African American Museum and Library in Oakland, Kathleen King, Aida Lizalde and Monica Westin.

Why you should participate:

Through my years if working with archives, I have found artists not planning for their legacies as well as they could or should. It is especially important for underrepresented populations to preserve their work by saving and sharing what we do. I am a steward and want to share my skills to look after this movement, preserve its residue, and share it with a broader public. I am adamant that material culture will last longer than digital culture, and the two must be preserved concurrently.

Material culture simply outlasts digital culture.
If you don’t archive your own legacy, who will?
Especially for marginalized people, writing our own histories is up to us.
What can we share with future generations about the state of the arts, politics and culture in the Bay Area and beyond?

How to Participate:

Check out our new functioning but not quite finished Website designed by the amazing Sean Schumacher

BACAA is soliciting materials for the archive. This means marketing cards from shows, ephemera from projects, readers, zines, notes, photos, etc.

Meanwhile, you can currently contribute in two ways:

Go to https://bacaa.art and Fill out a submission form for each piece of ephemera. Send your physical material by mail/drop off to
4012 Martin Luther King BLVD., Oakland, CA 94609
Any questions can be directed to BayAreaContemporaryArtArchive@gmail.com
In person collecting events will commence once it is safe to do so