FALL 2020 EXHIBITION—MAIN LIBRARY GALLERY his fall, the Main Library Gallery presented Sackner Archive, an exhibition featuring select pieces from the Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry. The Sackners founded the archive in 1979 in Miami Beach, Florida. The archive currently holds the world’s largest collection of concrete and visual poetry—more than 75,000 works. In 2019, the Sackners chose the University of Iowa Libraries as the archive’s new home.
Since then, curators at the University Libraries have begun creating detailed catalog records for each item in the archive. These records will allow students and faculty to search, access, and learn from this important collection that lies at the intersection of visual art, literature, performance, social activism, and cross-cultural communication. While the Sackner Archive collection is not yet open for in-person research, curators created this exhibition to introduce Iowans and the university community to the archive’s vast range of resources 20
WINTER 2021
that not only reveal the history and diversity of concrete poetry but also provide a lens for reflection on the current climate of worldwide change. For students, researchers, and community members, the exhibition was a portal to specific curricular strengths at the University of Iowa (such as writing, visual arts, music, and science) as well as the specialized collections in the University Libraries.
