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Establishing The Paley Legacy
The Albert Paley Archive collection is dedicated to becoming a living resource for students, faculty, scholars and working artists at RIT. In addition, the collection is a celebration of Paley’s unparalleled career and an inspiration to future generations of artists and art advocates.
About Albert Paley
Albert Paley has established an international reputation as a distinguished, influential sculptor. With a lifetime of accolades, his significant works, and valuable relationships with cultural leaders and educators, he is also a highly-accomplished teacher. Paley’s areas of discipline focused on the Studio Art Movement, decorative arts, design, sculpture, architecturally related work, and public art. Learn more
Decades as a successful internationally recognized artist have enabled Paley to develop an extensive personal archive. This rich collection reflects a range of studio arts, creative process, innovative technology application, and strong business practice.
Paley has enjoyed a long and productive relationship with Rochester Institute of Technology’s School for American Crafts. He has been a Professor and Artist in Residence at RIT since 1984 and he has shared his creative approaches and global connections with students and faculty. Three of his works can be found on the campus, including The Sentinel, one of his largest architectural commissions. His long-standing association with RIT makes this university a clear choice to house his archive and carry forth his legacy.
Albert Paley Slideshow
The Albert Paley Archive collection will provide a foundation for national and international research. View slideshow
Support the Paley Archive Collection
The Albert Paley Archive collection will provide a foundation for national and international research. Learn More
Activating a Living Archive
The Paley Archive will be housed within Wallace Library which is now undergoing a significant construction project linking our Archival and Library Resources with a new dynamic Student Hall for Exploration and Development, the SHED. This interactive resource will be at the center of the campus. The main structure and connected renovations include numerous flexible teaching spaces, several large-scale spaces for lectures, a glass box theater, a dance studio, a music rehearsal space, a new maker space, workspaces for student project teams, and a host of collaborative and informal meeting spaces.
The linking of the Library and Archives to the SHED takes the knowledge shared and gained in coursework, classrooms, and research and propels that into the art and craft of making. This expansive structure will enable students, faculty, and the full RIT community to come together, bond together, and put the RIT experience into practice.
RIT employs a unique “living archives” approach to our collections, seeking to provide valuable insight to students and scholars. The items in the RIT archives are directly accessible for study and create a unique forum for this critical, cultural dialogue. The Paley Archive will act as a source for program expansion and development to enhance the educational experience at RIT. Along with refined research resources such as publications, correspondence, business records, and personal history.
The Paley Archive will include architectural competitions, commissions, work with civic planners, and all aspects related to construction and installation for large-scale public works. In addition, information on marketing and gallery relations, museum exhibitions, lectures, and private commissions are also included.
Archive materials spanning 60 years will be a primary source of scholarly research including unpublished writings, photographs, newspaper and magazine articles, sketches, videos, maquettes, business records, fabrication notes and Albert Paley’s personal correspondence. Students, artists, curators and researchers will be able to investigate diverse art interests that span disciplines, processes, and materials science in the 20th and 21st Centuries.
Invest In An Ideal Relationship
RIT’s campus art collection reflects a university whose history is deeply connected to visual arts, graphic design, and crafts. The university’s extensive collection of artworks has been amassed over many years and demonstrates the importance of the visual arts curriculum since 1886.
This archive acquisition will provide a foundation for national and international attention. RIT can launch a wide variety of workshops, lead scholarly research, and establish conferences and exhibits to bring people to campus from across the country and around the world. These artists, scholars, and visitors will learn of Paley’s visionary work, his extraordinary career, and his commitment to art, education and advocacy.
Albert Paley’s collection cements an ideal relationship between the artist, RIT, and Paley’s supporters, as a shared effort is needed to establish the archives at the university.
