Texas Art Project Microfilm: Mel Chin Papers

Collection

Identifier: AAA 10058

Staff Only

Biographical data; newspaper and magazine clippings; a Bryant Park Artists in Residence Program file containing Chin's revised proposal for his sculpture, a news release, and photographs; a drawing of Chin's sculpture "The Manila Palm;" copies of sketches for a sculpture commission in Houston; and photographs of Chin's works of art.

Dates

1977-1985

Creator

Chin, Mel, 1951- (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Microfilm reel 3479 available for use through interlibrary loan.

Conditions Governing Use

Collections are made available for research purposes only. Documents, photographs, art work, microfilm, recordings, and transcripts owned by the Archives of American Art may be protected by copyright, trademark, or a related interest not owned by the Archives. It is the sole responsibility of the applicant to determine whether any such rights exist, and to obtain necessary permission for use.

If you would like to reuse or redistribute a digital or microfilm document from the Archives of American Art, please submit a request through the research request system and note that you are interested in reusing the item. In order to protect both you and the archives, AAA must have a reproduction agreement in place. All reuse requests are subject to a $25.00 administrative fee.

Extent

0.2 linear feet

1 Microfilm Reels

59 Images

Additional Description

Biographical / Historical

Mel Chin was born in Houston in 1951. He received a BA from Peabody College in Nashville, TN.

Mel tries to create social awareness with his art with multidisciplinary and collaborative creations. Some of his most outstanding works include: Forming the collective GALA committee which produced the public art project "In the name of the place", working with software engineers in the creation of the video game "Knowmad", filming the short film 9/11-9/11 that won the Pedro Sienna award for best animation (Chile, 2007).

Chin has received several awards and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council for the Arts, Art Matters, Pollock/Krasner, Rockefeller Foundation, Tiffany Foundation, among others. He has taken art to unlikely places like destroyed homes, toxic landfills and popular television.

Visit the artist’s website: http://melchin.org/oeuvre/mel-chin/

"The survival of my own ideas may not be as important as a condition I create for others" --Mel Chin

Sources: Art21, Mel Chin, https://art21.org/artist/mel-chin/, May 15th, 2020.

Mel Chin website, bio, http://melchin.org/oeuvre/mel-chin/, May 15th, 2020.

Other Finding Aids

AAA online guide, https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/mel-chin-papers-10058

Acquisition Information

Microfilmed as part of the Archives of American Art's Texas project. Donated 1985 by Mel Chin.(From Smithsonian AAA)

Note: The Mel Chin Papers were microfilmed for the Texas Art Project at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston as part of the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art. Currently the papers can be accessed on microfilm at MFAH. The University of Houston Libraries and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston are digitizing the Chin papers as part of a collaborative TexTreasures 2020 grant project through the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) with funding from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).When digitization is complete, the Chin papers will be made available online through UH Libraries and MFAH websites.