Gallery and Museum Files
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Spero, Nancy, 1926-2009
setName: label: See more items in
content: Nancy Spero papers
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 5.1 Linear Feet (Boxes 9-14)
label: Extent
content: 2.92 Gigabytes (ER05-ER08, ER12-13)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1972-2009
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.spernanc, Series 6
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Gigabytes
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: Files were originally arranged as part of the Subject Files series, but have been rearranged as a separate series to facilitate access. Files are arranged alphabetically by name of gallery or museum.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Series includes a substantial portion of Spero's professional correspondence relating to her dealings with numerous galleries, art institutions, and museums in the United States and abroad. Files may include correspondence, sales and consignment records, exhibition records, digital, video, and sound recordings, and printed and photographic material. 


Of note are the A.I.R. Gallery records. which include a set of sound recordings of an event series held there in the 1980s. A.I.R gallery correspondence from 1976-1977 relates to arrangements for a planned exhibition of Italian women artists curated by Anne-Marie Boetti-Sauzea and includes correspondence documenting difficulties with Valerie Solanas over the translation of her SCUM Manifesto into Italian without her permission. The exhibition was ultimately canceled due to Solanas's hostility and threats. A.I.R. partnership records include minutes of meetings from 1981-1982 and document the gallery's move to Crosby Street, purchased collectively by members, after rent increases forced the collective to leave the original Wooster Street location in 1981. Also documented are Spero's efforts to donate her share in the partnership in the early 1990s and the partnership's efforts to sell the space on Crosby Street in 1994-1995. 


Spero's dealings with  Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Barbara Gross Galerie, Christine König Galerie, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, and Josh Baer Gallery are well represented here. Files document the exhibitions and sales handled by those galleries. Also well documented are Spero's dealings with the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the installation there of her banner in the Koptos Gateway, and Spero's relationship with the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art which hosted a joint exhibition of  Spero's and Leon Golub's work in 1996. The records include a series of video recordings of the installation of the works, culminating in the opening of the exhibition.