Job Opening: Creative Audio Archive Manager
Experimental Sound Studio (ESS) is seeking a part-time Archives Manager to oversee preservation and engagement of the Creative Audio Archive.
About the Creative Audio Archive
Founded in 1986, ESS is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization dedicated to artistic evolution and the creative exploration of sound. As an international hub for sonic experimentation, ESS nurtures artists, heralds new works, and builds a broad, supportive community of makers, enthusiasts, and creative partners through production, presentation, education, and preservation.
The Creative Audio Archive (CAA) is a Chicago based center for the preservation and investigation of innovative and experimental sonic arts and music. CAA was formed in response to growing concerns over the general state of historical preservation of non-mainstream audio, in particular, recordings, print, and visual ephemera related to avant-garde and exploratory sound and music of the last five decades.
The Creative Audio Archive currently houses nine collections:
Sun Ra/El Saturn: approximately 600 tapes and reels dating from the 1950s-1993 that document the work of iconoclastic composer and bandleader Sun Ra including rehearsal tapes, recordings of live concerts, home recordings of sketches and experiments, and master tapes of material likely intended for commercial release.
Malachi Ritscher: contains over 4,000 items, the core of which is 1,100 live concert recordings from Chicago from the late-1980s to 2006.
Experimental Sound Studio: a continually expanding collection of ESS's programs and projects since the organization’s inception in 1986, including audio art, music, radio art, installation, sound poetry, cinema,
performing arts, and other projects.
Links Hall: recordings of over 135 events of spoken word, performance, and music that took place at Chicago's Links Hall, an influential multi-disciplinary project space founded in 1978.
Studio Henry: 90 live performances recorded on cassette between 1979 and 1986 at the pivotal but largely forgotten downtown New York City venue Studio Henry.
Nervous Center: 346 high quality audio and video VHS tapes documenting a series of seminal performances from the underground and improvised music scene in Chicago 1995 and 2000.
Penumbra Music: administrative records and commercial, beta, and live recordings from the Midwest-based label Penumbra Music.
(a)R(t) Noise / Necessary Arts Collection: 33 music CDs representing the work of Milwaukee leader in the Midwest avant-garde, Thomas Gaudynski.
Fred Anderson Collection: 52 video tapes and 14 audio tapes documenting experimental jazz and community-level organizing in Black communities in mid-20th century Chicago through the activities of Fred Anderson, great Chicago saxophonist and venue owner.
Beyond their focus on experimental music and sonic arts, a connecting theme among all the collections is a prevalence of live performance documentation in underground or DIY venues and contexts.
The collections provide an unparalleled look into pivotal decades in the development of Western experimental cultural expression, the evolution of race and gender in experimental music and sound art, and the evolving interdisciplinarity in sonic cultures. They are unique among similar institutions for their focus on concert recordings; for their national view of sonic arts and experimental music; and for their inclusion of physical ephemera and documentation in addition to digital.
Requirements:
Relevant experience in and knowledge of current archival practices, audio engineering, and experimental music and sonic arts
Goal and timeline oriented
Ability to be in-person at the ESS facilities at least 1 day per week
Comfortable working independently and collaborating remotely
Job description:
The Archives Manager is charged with working closely with the ESS archive material to build and maintain the collections including its collection stakeholders. They will work closely with the CAA Media Manager.
Part-time contract position; equivalent of 16 hours per week on a self-directed schedule plus attendance at some staff meetings; no benefits: $900 every 2 weeks.
The position requires a high degree of organizational skill, multitasking, assertiveness, flexibility, attention to detail, excellent communication and social skills, an interest in working as part of a team, and the ability to work quickly, creatively, and decisively with limited resources.
We strongly encourage applications from BIpoc, disabled, LGBTQ+ folx, and members of other communities that have been historically excluded or underrepresented in contemporary arts and media.
Goals and duties include the following:
Facilitate public and academic access to the archives, with an emphasis on the collection as living entities of history in interaction with creative activities of the present and future. This includes maintaining relationships and working with artists represented in the collections, as well as artists and scholars researching the collections.
Maintain an active presence in the national and international archiving community, promoting ESS’s unique collections in the CAA.
Ability to work alone as well as with a team, manage short- and long-term plans for the archives, manage interns and delegate tasks.
Maintain the media collections of the Creative Audio Archive. Particular focus on increasing online and digital accessibility to the content.
Maintain the relationships with collection stakeholders.
Preserve the collections’ content, conforming to the latest archival methods and standards.
Develop, update, and maintain finding aids and catalogs of the collections.
Accessibility
ESS is committed to making this and all roles work for interested applicants with visible and invisible disabilities, and will work with the person hired for this role to make accessibility accommodations as necessary.
Please Provide:
Resume and cover letter
3 References, name and contact information
Send all materials to Managing Director Adam Vida at info@experimentalsoundstudio.org with the subject line “Archives Manager.”
This position will remain open until filled.