Michael Schnorr Collection of Border Art Workshop/Tallér de Arte Fronterízo Records, 1978-2011

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Summary

Creators:
Border Art Workshop/Tallér de Arte Fronterízo and Schnorr, Michael, 1945-2012
Abstract:
The collection contains records, photographs, and audiovisual media from the artists collective Border Art Workshop/Tallér de Arte Fronterízo (BAW/TAF), as gathered and maintained by Michael Schnorr, one of the founding members of the group.
Extent:
30.3 Linear feet (47 archives boxes, 5 cartons, 10 shoe boxes, 5 card file boxes, 4 flat boxes, 9 map case folders, 1 tube) and 14.527 GB of digital files
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

Michael Schnorr Collection of Border Art Workshop/Tallér de Arte Fronterízo Records. MSS 760. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection contains the records of the artists collective Border Art Workshop/Tallér de Arte Fronterízo (BAW/TAF), as gathered and maintained by Michael Schnorr, one of the founding members of the group. It includes documentation of BAW/TAF's administrative history, funding efforts, correspondence, publicity, performance and project design and execution, and voluminous photographic and audiovisual documentation of performances and installations. The collection includes some material related to the group's original organizational sponsor, the Centro Cultural de la Raza in San Diego, as well as the Poblado Maclovio Rojas, a community outside of Tijuana where BAW/TAF and Schnorr conducted extensive activities related to the arts and social justice causes. A PDF guide to BAW/TAF exhibitions and installations is available here. The papers also include additional material relating to the independent artistic career of Michael Schnorr, who was an artist, social activist, and arts professor at Southwestern College in San Diego.

Digital media are currently being organized and inventoried; please contact Special Collections & Archives for access to those materials.

Arranged in nine series: 1) ADMINISTRATION, 2) PROJECTS AND EXHIBITS, 3) CHICANO PARK MURALS, 4) CORRESPONDENCE, 5) RELATED RESOURCES, 6) PHOTOGRAPHS AND IMAGES, 7) VIDEO AND FILM, 8) SOUND RECORDINGS, and 9) DIGITAL MEDIA.

Biographical / historical:

The Border Art Workshop/Tallér de Arte Fronterízo was organized by David Avalos under the sponsorship of the Centro Cultural de la Raza in San Diego, California between June and October 1984 as a multicultural, interdisciplinary group of artists and cultural activists. The group's seven founding members were (in alphabetical order): Isaac Artenstein, David Avalos, Sara Jo Berman, Jude Eberhardt, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Victor Ochoa and Michael Schnorr. Their goal was to collaboratively examine and deconstruct the concept of the border zone--promoting discussion, representation, and exploration--through the visual arts and performance installations. Over the following two decades, as some of the founding members left the group and new artists joined, BAW/TAF continued to actively participate in multi-disciplinary exhibitions and performances throughout Southern California, the United States, and internationally, at the Venice and Sydney Biennales. A PDF guide to BAW/TAF exhibitions and installations is available here.

In 1994, BAW/TAF drafted a group statement that emphasized their continuing efforts within binational and cross-cultural communities with the goal of expanding regional understanding. The group was committed to creating art and conditions for the viewing of art that overcame cultural barriers, despite inevitable tensions and changes over time within the collaborative itself. Michael Schnorr, as a founding member of BAW/TAF and a primary organizing force in the group's fundraising efforts, maintained much of the group's documentary record.

Schnorr's archive of BAW/TAF records, which included materials relating to his own projects and artistic career, was acquired by the UC San Diego Library following his death in 2012.

Acquisition information:
Acquired 2013
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

NOTICE: A large portion of this collection is out for scanning. Parts of the collection may be off-site and unavailable through April 2025. Contact SC&A for details. Original audiovisual recordings are restricted. Viewing/listening copies may be available for researchers.

Terms of access:

Publication rights are held by the creator(s) of the collection.

Preferred citation:

Michael Schnorr Collection of Border Art Workshop/Tallér de Arte Fronterízo Records. MSS 760. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.

Location of this collection:
9500 Gilman Drive, Dept. 0175
La Jolla, CA 92093-0175, US
Contact:
(858) 534-2533
spcoll@ucsd.edu
Website