Collection Guide
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Schnorr (Michael) Collection of Border Art Workshop/Tallér de Arte Fronterízo Records
MSS 0760
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Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
Title: Michael Schnorr Collection of Border Art Workshop/Tallér de Arte Fronterízo Records
Creator:
Border Art Workshop/Tallér de Arte Fronterízo
Creator:
Schnorr, Michael, 1945-2012
Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0760
Physical Description:
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 digital files)
Date (inclusive): 1978-2011
Abstract: The collection contains records, photographs, and audiovisual media from the artist 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.
Languages:
English
.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection contains the records of the artist 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.
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.
Michael Schnorr Collection of Border Art Workshop/Tallér de Arte Fronterízo Records. MSS 760. Special Collections & Archives,
UC San Diego.
Acquired 2013
Publication rights are held by the creator(s) of the collection.
Original audiovisual recordings are restricted. Viewing/listening copies may be available for researchers. Digital media are
restricted while assessment and processing is performed; please inquire for additional information regarding digital files.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Chicano Park (San Diego, Calif.)
Mexican-American Border Region -- In art
Art and society -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Art and society -- United States -- History -- 21th century
Art -- Mexican-American Border Region
Border Art Workshop/Tallér de Arte Fronterízo -- Archives
Avalos, David
Schnorr, Michael, 1945-2012 -- Archives
Gómez-Peña, Guillermo
Jottar, Berta
Orozco Ochoa, Victor
Centro Cultural de la Raza (San Diego, Calif.)